The Road To Badass
by CapriciousCaper
Summary: "They left me temporarily, so I'm going to make it permanent." The what-if scenario when Sakura decides to make a stand for herself when Team 7 leaves her behind yet again. AU/Non-Massacre. CHAPTER 9 IS UP.
1. Beginning

Title: The Road To Badass

Summary: "They left me temporarily, so I'm going to make it more permanent." The what-if scenario when Sakura decides to make a stand for herself when the Team leaves her behind yet again.

* * *

I ran as fast as my short legs could take me, past the numerous food carts and their delicious-smelling foods, ignoring every glint of a pretty bauble. All that mattered right now, was that I arrived at the gates on time. I pretended that the huffing of my breaths did not belong to me, the sweat down my long, pink hair was not in the least gross.

After what seemed to be forever, the blur around me disappeared and my team and the gates came into view. Kakashi-sensei was there already! But why were they walking away from me?

"Kakashi-sensei!" I called out but my voice refused to form a solid tone. My puffs interfered and my lungs decided that they had had enough. A burning feeling ran up my legs, and I was forced to a stop. He had to hear me. A jounin like Kakashi-sensei had to know that I wasn't there yet. Even Sasuke-kun or Naruto would notice.

Why were they walking away from me then? Naruto was nudging Sasuke and laughing, Kakashi-sensei with his nose, for once out of his perverted book. Why wasn't I there? I tried to get their attention once more. They _had _ to see me, I was a part of that team too!

"Kakashi-sensei! Naruto! Sasuke-kun!"

I think they finally heard me, or at least Kakashi-sensei did. He was turning his head over to me. I felt so excited and waved at him, they only needed to wait a second or two, I would be there in a few moments and we could all walk together. Kakashi-sensei would tell them to wait. As our mentor and sensei he would.

But he didn't. Like time had stopped all around me, I watched with horror as he did not acknowledge me and instead turned to tell my team members something. They both turned around, and even though I think I knew what was happening, that little hope I had reared it's head. They would wait for me. We were a team. A team.

Instead, they changed their slow, walking pace to a fast one, shooting off into the trees with chakra before I could blink.

Had it just happened?

This small, insignificant thing like changing your pace when you can't even be sure that the man had seen you? But deep down I knew he had. It was a painful feeling, and a bit like Ami telling me I was ugly again.

Like I wasn't good enough.

* * *

I stayed in the corner of my room, slowly going through every moment I had spent with my... team, and this time I looked at it properly. Without my rose-colored glasses and observed everything I had ignored.

During training, what did we do? We usually sparred, me and Naruto for a round or two, each time usually ended with me getting tired and forfeiting because I couldn't defeat his clones. After that... target practice and then...

What else was there? There should still be something more to show what I have done during training.

So why wasn't there?

_'Come on Sakura, face the facts. What did Naruto and Sasuke-kun do for training? Compare them to you and you will have your answer_.'

Alright. We were always at the training grounds for at least two hours, but I always left after the two-hour mark. So during the two-hour mark, what did the two members of her team do? Well there was always sparring. Violent sparring. They would almost always start with a multiple shadow-clone jutsu from Naruto, a wipe-out with Sasuke's katon jutsu.. but it never just ended the way her spars did. No. They would keep on fighting. There was a constant close combat tai-jutsu between the two of them, she didn't know what style Sasuke used but Naruto's was a mixture of handsprings, jumps and messy punches and kicks. Much like a brawler's.

There was never just an ending with their spars. When I stay behind once in a while, it always has both of them on the ground, bruised and exhausted.. Completely unlike her somewhat pristine condition.

All she did during training was give up. She didn't punch. Or kick. Could she even do a handspring? Or a flip? She could barely do jutsu, usually sticking to a henge or just protecting the client... even Naruto had at least two jutsu in his arsenal, never mind that one of them was a perverted one.

On missions all she did was watch the back of her team mates, she rarely needed to fight, and even the occasional need for defense was quickly taken away by either one of the boys.

_'And today was the first time I saw them use chakra to travel. Whenever I was with them, all we did was walk."_

_'All I did was be a burden.'_

She was no better than Ino. Her fight ended in a draw, and only because she was partly schizophrenic. No doubt by now Ino was being trained by her father and would definitely best her in the next exam. What kind of rival was she?

_'The kind that is useless.'_

Useless. That's what she was.

She couldn't fight, she barely knew any jutsu and her physical abilities were pathetic. She wasn't a real kunoichi, she was just a civilian who could use her chakra masquerading as one.

**_No you are not useless_! **

Sakura yelped and then covered her mouth.

_Inner! _

**_Yes nice to meet you, I've been living here for thirteen years and three months nice to meet you you DUMBASS!_**

I covered my ears quickly. She was loud and her voice was ringing through my head in a painful and annoying way.

_**Listen up you little bitch, I'm you and you're me and since you're the one who is showing ourself to the world, you shouldn't be doing such a shit job of it. You are not useless okay? I refuse to be useless or a burden!**_

_Shut up._

**_Why are you only sassy in your head? Hmm?_**

_I'm not._

**_You are._**

_Quiet Inner._

**_No. You are only going to steer yourself the wrong way. We chose to become ninja, and so we better become damn good ones._**

_You forget Inner, we are not from a shinobi clan. I... chose to become one because of Sasuke-kun remember?_

**_So? We are among the small percentage of people from civilian clans who can get in touch with our chakra, and guess what? We are damn good at using it!_**

_What is your point Inner?_

**_My point is, even big clans like the Uchiha's, where everyone has chakra, don't become shinobi or kunoichi. Don't you remember? Everyone has chakra, but not everyone has the innate ability to use it you BAKA._**

_Well, that's true.. I guess.._

**_And since we have that ability, when we do not have any shinobi blood in us says something!_**

I smiled. Inner did know how to make someone feel better, even if she was pretty rough about it.

_You're right._

**_So stop whining about being a burden. Yes you are one, but that is TEMPORARY you hear me?_**

_Yeah! It's not going to be for forever!_

**_So do something about it! Get off your lazy ass and show those boys that you are better than them!_**

Yeah! She would!

She was not as strong as any of her teammates, but she had determination now and was revising her reason to be a shinobi.

"I will make something of myself." She said.

"I will make them regret it!"

"I, Haruno Sakura, will become a great shinobi!"

Not a Kunoichi, because Ino was one and I plan to be better than that!

Yes, Haruno Sakura did.

* * *

Hey guys, so this is kind of like a prologue. I'm still deciding whether to go first person or second person so bear with me and let me know what you think.

Okay guys so this is AU non-mass. Bear with me I'm still planning what to do but here's some stuff in case you're confused. Chuunin exams are over, it will be revealed later who passed in Team 7 though we all know that Sakura didn't make it, she will become cool and I'm going to end the melodramatic it hurts stuff. She is on the road to badass and I'm going to do my best to outline it.

Naruto has already met with Jiraiya, and there was still the invasion, the third died and Tsunade had to come back because Jiraiya didn't want to be Hokage, everyone knows this already.

Review it for any reason at all. :)


	2. Chapter 1

Title: The Road To Badass

Summary: "They left me temporarily, so I'm going to make it permanent." The what-if scenario when Sakura decides to make a stand for herself when the Team leaves her behind yet again.

* * *

Sakura walked to the Hokage Tower. Determination coursing through her veins like never before. The miniature breakthrough she had with Inner and given her confidence and she was going to do this! She had given herself a day to decide on what to do, and in true Sakura fashion, had written the Pros and the Cons to this.

It was a first step to the very many steps she would need to reach her goal, it would be hard, but this was a promise to herself and she sure as hell would not back down.

Sasuke had Kakashi-sensei and his clan.

Naruto had the Kyuubi and Jiraiya-sama.

Sakura? Her determination.

Her parents had both died during Sound's invasion and had left her with unpaid loans. Of course her team didn't know that, and although she had been hoping to tell them and confide in them, she doubted it was something she could do now.

_**That's why you have a voice in your head Sakura.**_

She smiled wryly at Inner's random words.

Yes, that was probably why.

* * *

"Hi Shizune-san," I said to the black-haired lady, "Is Tsunade-sama busy?"

"Oh hello Sakura-san, there's a team with her now but they should be finished in a few minutes." She said while gesturing at the door. "Why don't you just sit here and wait for a while?"

"Sure." I said slowly. I still needed a little bit more time to build up my confidence, waiting was just a slight setback and it even if it was making me question my thoughts I knew I still had to get through this.

After all look at Shizune-san. She was Tsunade-sama's apprentice and is the second-best medic-nin in all of Japan. She has her own signature fighting style, has fought and survived... travelled all over the place and has so much knowledge and experience. I want to become someone as capable as she is. Even more so if I can!

I just had to ask Tsunade-sama this one thing first. It will seal the deal and will push me through.

"Forehead?"

I looked up to see my blonde rival look down at me. It rushed through me so suddenly, I didn't understand it. This feeling that tightens your chest and makes you want to frown.

"Pig. Your team was the one with Tsunade-sama?"

"Yeah! We just came back from a mission and I'm telling you, Tsunade-sama was definitely impressed with me."

"Ma.. Ino, you realize that she said that to Asuma-sensei, not any one of us?"

"Yeah yeah, but you know Forehead?" Ino leaned in and whispered, "I'll bet she's going to take me as an apprentice."

"But Pig... she said she would never take on one..."

She leaned back and put her hand on her hips, "True, but I have so much potential, she'll just have to take me."

I nodded, "I see."

Watching them walk off together with Ino in front, talking animatedly to a barely listening Shikamaru and telling Chouji to keep the chips away from her. I understood the rush of feeling I had earlier. _Resentment._

Blonde, beautiful, amazing hair. Her waist was tiny enough for the headband to be tied there. She had her signature move, she had people to rely on... and it felt a lot like she had suddenly won the battle between us.

_**She won the battle Sakura. Not the war.**_

_That sounded intelligent Inner._

**_Well I'm you. Some of your brain juice had to leak somewhere._**

I got up and walked into the office.

Tsunade-sama, how to describe her...

She is so beautiful. Ino suddenly didn't seem so amazing anymore. Compared to this woman who had single-handedly become **The **Medic-nin of all generations, the woman who had invented hundreds of skill, technique and antidotes. She radiated power and confidence.

"What can I do for you...?" She turned her wrist a few times at me.

"O-Oh, I'm Sakura, Haruno Sakura... I'm from Team 7..."

"Oh Kakashi's group... Wait.. why aren't you with them?"

I breathed in deeply, "Frankly, I don't know. I came to ask you that, and then after you told me, to decide which course of action to go with from there."

She smirked at me. "Alright. Well... Your sensei came to request for a mission. Not just any mission, one he said specifically for a training regimen with his team. He'll be gone six months with the boys and is meeting my ex-teammate on the way. I didn't check your team and assumed you were also a guy."

It hurt.

A training regimen, for the team, without a team member.

"**Bastards.**"

Oops. Inner pushed through for a moment.

Tsunade-sama looked at me amusedly.

"Okay, and what is your course of action... Haruno Sakura?"

This was it.

Now or never.

"Please remove me from Team 7."

"What? You realize that with Kakashi it is just a temporary arrangement? They will be back after six months."

"They left me temporarily.. So I'm going to make this permanent."

"Well, I'm going to need a proper reason from you Sakura. I can't just go around letting young girls get out of their teams with no good reason, so let me hear it."

"Okay, with all due respect to the previous Hokage, I was put in the wrong team. I have made nearly no growth, mentally, emotionally and physically with my team or on my own. I revised every single thing that has been done on my team, I wrote it down as bare facts. I was neglected. Of course it is not just their fault, it is partially mine. All through the academy I was a very good student, chakra control, exams, you name it I knew it. The only thing I couldn't ace was Taijutsu. I didn't know enough to train on my own and I didn't want to. I chose to become a kunoichi for a stupid reason. And that reason just left me behind, not as a girl, but as a teammate."

"The whole time I was a team with them, I was never taken seriously. Spars were taken lightly, target practice was momentary. I was at fault for not having the drive to train, but in defense, no one ever decided that I had potential. My chakra control is the best among my generation. I have a ninety-seven percent control rate over it, something that not even Kakashi-sensei has. During missions, I protect the client, I know I can, but I was never given the chance, and how can I take a chance when my entire team does not believe in me. I want to have a chance to grow, to strengthen myself and I have found my drive and resolve. Staying with a team that does not think I have potential, a team that constantly tells me that I don't need to be taken seriously will only downgrade my self-esteem. Them leaving taught me a valuable lesson and I have gained growth just from it."

"Please believe in me and take me off the team, permanently."

*Clap*Clap*

I looked up at the sudden sound. Tsunade-sama was reclined on her seat and smiling at me. A small, pleased smile- at least I think she was pleased with me- but a smile nonetheless.

"Very well."

I grinned, suddenly feeling light and free. "Thank you Tsunade-sama."

And then I remembered the one other thing I had wanted to ask her. "Uh... Tsunade-sama..."

"Hmm? Haven't you already gotten what you wanted?"

"Will you, consider making me your apprentice? I understand that you do not wish to take on another one and Ino really does have the-

"What? You think I'll take her as an apprentice? She does not have the same potential you do Sakura, understand that. If there is anything I have learned in my years as a Shinobi, and a Kunoichi, it is the desire and drive to get on top that truly takes you there. Do not underestimate yourself even if everyone around you does, that is your first lesson. And no, I will not take on you as an apprentice."

"Don't look crestfallen, I wouldn't take the Yamanaka either. Right now, you're thinking of apprentice as someone who will be taught everything you need to know. You need to know everything you are supposed to before you become my apprentice. There are things I can teach you, train you in, but you first need to up everything you know you need to. Come back when you know you are ready, and I will take you in."

* * *

It could have been worse I guess. It wasn't that she thought I wasn't good enough, it was because I was not ready yet, and she was right. How can I become the best if I was not better yet right?

_**Better still. She thinks you're better than Ino. Clan-born mind-technique, blonde, beautiful Ino. **_

_That's right. We are better! _

**_And when the bastards return, they will know it!_**

Well first she needed to decide on what she had to improve on.

_**You mean besides your chakra control? Everything.**_

Sakura shook her head and got off her bed. The first thing she had to do was write everything down. She pulled a pencil out of the drawer along with an old brown notebook. It some of the few things she could afford in the dilapidated old apartment she was in now. It was in a quiet part of Konoha, where everything was so poor no one lived there, so good, she didn't need to pay rent because everything else came ahead of this area in Konoha.

_Alright, I'm good at chakra control... but I don't have the chakra capacity for almost anything, so that's priority. Two, physical strength... I will need a fitness regimen that I can use daily, and increase it continuously. Three.. Taijutsu.. If I don't have it then I'm screwed. Find someone to teach me. I think I know of someone though... Okay Four... Genjutsu, because it's something I'm quite good at dispelling even if I don't know how to create one. And lastly, ninjutsu, because I don't know any and I'm not legendary enough to use chakra by itself without seals._

_**We should read u****p on that. How cool would it be if we didn't need handsigns to do stuff and only used our chakra control to manipulate the chakra in other stuff, to do stuff!**_

_Not very eloquent Inner, but how do you know that? _

**_Remember that book you snagged from the shopkeeper when we were four? What was it called...? You know the one where they told us of The Legend of Don'Yoku? And we couldn't understand anything it said but I remembered it all anyway?_**

_Inner you know that's just rubbish right?_

**_But it makes sense! Think about it. I don't like being the smart one because you take a long time to get things and you're always in denial!_**

_Alright, alright, I'll think about it. Um.. so in every living thing, there is chakra. Technically there is chakra in the whole earth, even dead twigs because if it was once alive there will still be remnants of chakra in it._

**_Plus there are two kinds of chakra remember? Besides our life energy, there is the chakra we use on a daily basis and there is the one that stays in us as energy. Just energy. If there is no energy whatsoever in anything there'll be a black hole!_**

_Inner that's right! But it's not easy for people to use because we are so attached to our usual chakra, but if we can connect to the energy in us... we can connect to all energy sources in the world, oh my gosh Inner that means we can take chakra from the freaking air around us! Oh my goodness Inner, if I can master this I will never, ever run out of chakra to use for anything, EVER._

**_Slow down you chakra freak. Bad memory much? Energy can only use energy. Sure you can turn water into ice and can control almost any shit in the world, but you can also only use chakra for things like Henge! _**

_..._

**_Well technically you need both the energy and the chakra... for stuff like that... plus it's only for living elements and stuff that you can control. So-called dead things like paper or rocks or twigs need both energy AND chakra, you know, because the chakra part is to animate it and the energy part to actually connect to it?_**

_Wow Inner I haven't heard you sound so smart in a really, really long time._

**_Bitch please. It's called memory work. It's all in your mind which I'm sifting through. By the way I can also see this embarrassing picture of us both when we were two, had chocolate and found a mirror._**

_Inner! Now excuse me while I go find someone to train me._

**_Fine. Go. GO._**

* * *

She found just the person she was looking for.

By the bridge while the sun's glare hit him in an almost grotesque way...

"GO LEE GO! MAY YOUR YOUTHFUL POWER FORGE ITSELF INTO THE TREE TRUNKS OF YOUTH!"

And Inner was also looking for an excuse to not have this guy teach them. Seriously, he had a great body but spandex was not a good look on anyone. Except maybe women with exceptionally proportionate bodies.

Not people like Gai.

Or Lee.

"Hi...?"

He turned to her with force, and waggled his bushy brows at her. "WHY IF IT IS NOT MY ETERNAL RIVAL'S YOUNG STUDENT! HELLO YOUNG PINK HAIRED ONE!"

"H-hello... Uh.. Gai-san... I was wondering..."

"YES, YES, ASK ME ANYTHING AT ALL!" Sakura winced, was his voice always so big and booming?

"Okay, well you see... er... I am severely lacking at Taijutsu and I really need someone to train me in Taijutsu so... I would learn on my own but I don't know where to begini or how to start so... could you please help me?"

"THAT IS SO YOUTHFUL YOUNG CHILD! OF COURSE I WILL HELP YOU AND YOUR POWERS OF YOUTH!"

"Thank... thank you... Gai-san..."

"WE WILL GET STARTED IMMEDIATELY. I WILL MEET YOU HERE TOMORROW AT FOUR-THIRTY IN THE MORNING OH YOUTHFUL ONE!"

"Four... four-thirty in the morning you say?"

"YES, IT IS EARLY AND IT IS WHEN THE FIRST LIGHT SHINES AND WHAT IS MORE YOUTHFUL THAN THAT!? LET THE POWER OF YOUTH PUSH US FAR!."

"Okay..."

_**Sakura...**_

_Yeah?_

**_You know I hate you right?_**

_I think I agree with you Inner._

**_You hate you too?_**

_No, I hate YOU too._

Sakura smiled and mentally crossed out Taijutsu from her list. Next she had to find someone to help her with genjutsu...

_Oh this is kind of depressing... Don't get me wrong 'cause I like Kurenai-san plenty but... _

**_You just don't want to be taught by yet another Team's sensei?_**

_Yeah... with Gai-san I had no choice, but with genjutsu, I'd really like to have someone other than her teach me, I mean come on there has to be more than one person in Konoha who is really great at genjutsu right?_

**_Of course there is Outer... It's like we know dozens of people who are GREAT at genjutsu and use it all the time... Oh LOOK OVER THERE on the opposite side of the city is the Uchiha Clan House, I'll bet they have a whole ton of people who can help you out!_**

_Inner you don't have to be sarcastic._

**_When am I not?_**

Sakura paused for a second, smiling as the thought hit her.

_Inner... There are plenty of Uchiha who are good at genjutsu aren't there? They have to be, after all... They do have the Sharingan..._

**_Oh no... no.. nooooo we are NOT asking those pompous bastards for help Sakura! NO!_**

_Yes I know they are pompous but remember that extremely tall guy we ran into that day? _

**_Oh my god Sakura you clueless twit! You don't know who that was? Is?_**

_Well he was definitely tall... had deep tear troughs... really good bone structure... plus he's an Uchiha and he was freaking nice for one._

**_Yeah?_**

_Yeah! I tripped in front of him and dropped all my groceries sometime last year._

**_And?_**

_And he helped me pick them up. No insult. No snickering. He didn't even ignore me and walk away._

**_Are you sure you don't have a long-term concussion from that and your brain is stupid now?_**

_Yes. Geez Inner. But you said I don't know who that is. If you know who it is it will be easier to find him and ask for his help. _

**_This might hurt, so I'll rip it off quick. Like a bandaid._**

_Okay... um, Inner?_

**_Yes?_**

_You're scaring me now._

**_Alright alright I'll be quick._**

_Anytime now Inner._

**_His name is Uchiha Itachi and he's a super genius and he's Sasuke's big brother! I know this because I came across him once while we were stalking Sasuke but you ignored him while I remembered him okay?_**

_What.. did you say?_

* * *

So what did you think?

XXXXX

To all the. Five Kingdoms Of The Dead Fans out there, im not copying it, it's my inspiration.

Enjoy.


	3. Chapter 2

Title: The Road To Badass

Summary: "They left me temporarily, so I'm going to make it permanent." The what-if scenario when Sakura decides to make a stand for herself when the Team leaves her behind yet again.

* * *

Dango is the kind of treat that you either enjoyed very much, or didn't mind but didn't particularly love. It is not possible for people to dislike dango. At least that was what Sakura felt.

She reached for the third and last stick on her plate, planning to savor it as best as she could. Made out of rice flour and numerous other magical ingredients that created the soft, but chewy texture of her favorite dessert. The dango was one of the best in Konoha and at a fraction of the price of the many other stalls.

This was THE stall that took all the business away from everybody, but nobody who needed to know it, knew it. All those snooty owners who claimed to have the best dango? No. This was **_THE _**best and that was that.

Sakura licked the sweet sauce off her finger, a little annoyed that she had yet again, devoured the entire stick without realizing it.

"Sakura-chan, how was the dango today?"

The owner of the little stall came over. He was a little man. Short and slightly stooped, chubby and shared a love for dango the way she did.

"Kanbaji-san, it was amazing, as usual." She smiled at the way his wrinkled face lighted up.

"Ah, Sakura-chan, you are so generous with your compliments," He handed her another plate of dango, "Here, for being such a loyal customer. On the house."

"Oh Kanbaji-san thank you so much! And I will not insist to pay because I know you don't like when I do."

"Very true Sakura-chan, well enjoy it, I will bring you some red date tea."

"Thank you!"

She sighed happily and picked up the stick of dango. It really was a wonderful treat… But she needed to stop dreaming and get back to thinking about what to do for her training.

_Inner… so, Uchiha Itachi is Sasuke's older brother._

**_I said that already you dummy. Millions of times. And then you tried blocking me out by covering your ears with your hands._**

_Oh._

**_And looking like a madwoman while you did it._**

_Well?_

**_You do this all the time. You ignore whatever is happening and just come here and eat until the plate is dry before thinking about what you don't like. _**

_Well I'm ready to think about it now._

**_Yeah. With added sugar to sooth your troubled heart._**

_Funny Inner. You know sugar is bad for the heart._

**_But the genius eats it anyway. _**

_…_

**_Alright I know what you're thinking, and no, I don't think he would make a good genjutsu mentor. _**

_You are just biased Inner._

**_I'M NOT THE ONE THAT RAN AND RAN BECAUSE I REFUSED TO TAKE IT AND THEN REMEMBERED SHE COULDN'T RUN SO SHE STOPPED HERE!_**

_That never happened inner. Now, don't be prejudiced against Itachi-san for being an Uchiha…_

**_HE'S AN UCHIHA!_**

_I-ta-chi… Uchiha Itachi… It has a nice ring to it…_

**_Sakura? Sakura.. no… no. no. no. no. no. You are NOT allowed to suddenly fall for some guy okay? Especially a Uchiha._**

_An._

**_Sorry what?_**

_It's not a Uchiha, it's an Uchiha. _

**_Well you are being a smartass with me now are you?_**

_Yep. Think about it for a minute Inner…_

**_Here we go again…_**

_He is tall, with fine features and might I say that-_

**_No you might not!_**

_THAT he is an Uchiha, but he helped me okay? Normal, bitchy, stuck-up Uchiha's do not help us!_

**_Sakura that guy has eyes darker and more emotionless than Sasukes!_**

_Well if he's emotionless then he won't enjoy picking on me the way his bratty brother does!_

**_Sakura…_**

_He seems nice! And I'm sure he won't be a complete meanie if I were to ask for some help. The worst he can do is say no._

**_And then ridicule you the way Sasuke does._**

_He's better looking than Sasuke you know? Or maybe it's just because he's older than him…_

**_Oh kami-sama, Sakura… You are not going to have a crush on THE BROTHER OF Uchiha Sasuke A.K.A douchebag emperor, who along with everybody else, left you BEHIND._**

_….. That was mean inner._

**_I know._**

_They probably would have run if they knew you were here._

**_Oh HO! So you are happy enough to joke about that shit now?_**

_WELL THERE"S NOTHING I CAN DO ABOUT IT! _

**_…_**

_Now, let's be calm. Like the mature, hardworking adults we are._

**_You are a contradiction._**

_I realize that… now back onto Uchiha Itachi._

**_No! I thought we were off this!_**

_Really Inner? Really? _

**_Okay well no… but come on. Sasuke's brother?_**

_You're acting like me now._

**_I AM YOU! Just a lag in responses. Besides I was against this from the beginning._**

_Look Inner. At the very least, he is a good-looking guy who definitely has more manners than Uchiha Sasuke. Okay?_

**_I can't even control you're, my…. Body._**

_Oh speaking of control Inner, HOW DID YOU DO THAT?_

**_Do what?_**

_Kick Ino out! I don't know how to just like, make you manifest or something. All we do is talk and it's like talking to a normal person. In my head…_

**_Yeah… _**

_I can barely remember Ino in my head… I think she completely pushed me into the inside of my… consciousness? I only know stuff because you do…_

**_It's embarrassing Sakura._**

_Why?_

**_I only came out when Naruto started yelling you idiot. I don't know how he managed to convince our sub-subconscious that we needed to beat her._**

_He did… sort of strike a soft spot…_

**_You mean a sore spot…_**

_Yea… whatever. Why do we keep switching the way we speak?_

**_Because we are each other dummy!_**

_Right. Okay. Got it. So keep going about the Ino thing._

**_Right so… she kind of just… you know how she completely pushed you out? Or kind of like knocked you out? She didn't knock me out… just… forcibly convinced me to become dormant I guess, and then when Naruto hit that spot all the way deep in out sub-subconscious… It just woke me up and pissed me off. Or the other way around and…_**

_And?_

**_Sakura… don't look now… But I THINK UCHIHA ITACHI IS IN THE HOUSE._**

_Excuse me? Inner if this is a joke I-_

**_DUCK NOW! IT IS HIM NOW DUCK DUCK DUCKKKKK!_**

Sakura stifled a yelp and pushed herself under the table, watching him sit in the booth behind her. With the wooden boards connecting the booths side to side quite low, Sakura had to keep herself flat to the surface of the seats to prevent him from seeing her.

**_CRAWL TO THE NEXT BOOTH._**

_OKAY! I'M GOING I'M GOING!_

**_DON'T FORGET THE DANGO!_**

_Right._

**_Now crawl like your life depends on it CRAWL!_**

_I'm crawling now shut up!_

Sakura breathed a small sigh of relief when her foot left her booth, and then stiffened when her foot scraped the edge of the board. It was close to seven and most of the people had left the place, chatter and noise had long left the lonely town area.

She was so sure he had heard her, but when she didn't hear even the slightest rustle of clothing, she smiled and carried on, sliding into the next booth and it's dusty floors.

_INNER WHAT DO I DO! I'M NOT READY TO MEET THIS GUY YET! CONVINCING YOU IS ALSO CONVINCING MYSELF AND GODDAMN IT I JUST KIND OF GOT OVER THE FACT THAT HE'S SASUKE'S BROTHER!_

**_IDIOT I KNOW THAT! I AM YOU'RE FREAKING SUBCONSCIOUS! AND I KNOW YOU HAVEN'T ACTUALLY GOTTEN OVER IT!_**

_Oh man… Inner… what…_

**_You know, you don't usually come back from breakdowns like that so easily._**

_Maybe because we are suddenly kind of in tune with each other._

**_And you aren't affecting me with your Sasuke influence anymore._**

_Excuse me, influence?_

**_Yes you do affect me to an extent okay? We are the same person you dumb idiot._**

_Yeah but shouldn't you-_

**_I think we should think of a way to get the hell out of here first Sakura. I think he probably would have noticed your hair all the way from the counter no matter how fast we got down and here._**

_Right okay. How do I do this?_

**_CRAWL IDIOT CRAWL! Once we reach past the first booth, he can't see us since his side will face us so we just make a run for it. _**

_Okay!_

**_Make sure it's a quiet run. And don't trip on anything okay?_**

_Yeah, yeah I won't._

Sakura silently sent a prayer up to the heavens, hoping the gods didn't discriminate against old wooden floors that were between her and wherever in the skies the heavens were. Then, she bent low to the ground, not wanting to touch it, but hoping to somewhat to camouflage herself with it. One hand moved forward and her center of gravity shifted, then came her knee, following the same path as her hand. One after the other, with her neck stiff and her breathing nearly non-existent.

After what seemed to be an excruciatingly long time, she finally reached the first booth. In all it's old, stained glory, it was the most wonderful booth in the world. A gold aura shined from somewhere behind it in Sakura's mind and the angels sang with joy.

She was finally here. She sat up slowly, transferring the weight from her knee to her foot and changed her body's position to a crouch. So close to home, it would not do to misplace her foot on anything or have any attention brought to her.

It was pretty dark outside and the only light came from one or two flickering streetlamps. Perfect. When she dashed out, there was a good chance that he would not see the color of her hair.

"Sakura-chan~" Of course, if she didn't do accidentally do anything to sabotage her plan, someone else would. "Would you like the usual dango to go?"

The pinkette turned a slightly odd shade of red and white mixed together. Embarrassment at being caught... Fear of being seen by Uchiha Itachi...

"K-Kanbaji-san... uh... no thanks-Ihavetogonowthankyouverymuch!" She stuttered out and threw herself out of the shop and ran like she was Naruto to free ramen. She didn't look back to see the Uchiha's reaction to her and made a note to start wearing a cap to hide her hair in.

* * *

Uchiha Itachi.

Eighteen. Fearless ANBU Captain of Team Three.

Unsociable, cold, and emotionless. Dangerous, powerful and self-sacrificing. An emotionally-stunted, workaholic, ridiculously good-looking man. There were numerous ways to describe him and even more ways to put them in groups. Some of the adjectives were not so well-known by others, some were. Two words that anyone who lived above a rock knew him to be were cold and attractive.

A man whose every movement was calculated, precise and never a waste of energy. He responded, not reacted to any situation with careful, thought out answers and when needed, manipulative words.

Every woman wanted him to herself, every man wanted to be him.

Tall, lean figure with broad shoulders and long limbs. A dangerous, but undoubtedly refined aura with an innate confidence in his skill. His face was beautiful in a masculine way with a tall, straight nose. High cheekbones and sharp jawline were in perfect proportion to his every other feature resulting in an aristocratic, handsome face. His whole being exuded male, yet he attracted as much as he repelled with his aura that told you he was dangerous.

Everyone who met him knew this, and once they had gotten past his looks, understood that he was not a man that they should mess with and so the whole of Konohagakure's people knew to stay away from him. Shopkeepers did not pester him to try their goods, women oohed and ahhed from afar.

Well most of the village was wary.

Itachi knew why. Sort of, Shisui had told him many times that he scared people away but he always replied that it was their assumptions and not his.

'Ignorance breeds fear.' And when it came to his character, many were thoroughly ignorant.

There was just this man, outside of his immediate family that took him at face value, for his manners and his responses. The old, stooped man of the Dango Shop in the desolate Saifuku Street. Itachi was a lover of dango. Something of a connoisseur of it. He had had dango from nearly every stall and restaurant in Konoha but this was truly the one place that served the best dango.

And Itachi would only take the best when it came to the one thing he enjoyed.

The fact that this man owned the stall producing the highest quality of dango with nobody here to mock him about it kept Itachi a regular, after rush-hour customer. He came here on a weekly basis and arrived at the exact same time, not a minute out of place, each time. Six fifty-five in the evening, every Thursday. It did not matter whether he had an interrogation or a short mission. He was always back on time. Unless he had taken a high-profile mission that required him being away from Konoha for more than four days, because Uchiha Itachi could complete a two day mission in one, and a three day mission in one and a half.

He was that good. But he suspected the current and previous Hokage's knew of his being here and allowed him to move the mission days around unless they were of extreme importance. Beyond ANBU importance. In that instance, the loyal shinobi of Konoha dropped everything he had to do and did as was necessary.

It had been a relatively relaxing day, by Itachi standards. It beat Uchiha standards by a good square mile that, already beat the typical Jounin standards by light-years. He had finished interrogation and team training by six, returned home to change out of his ANBU attire and reassure his mother, then came to the little piece of heaven with it's rotting wood and shingles.

Of course, just because he was off-duty did not mean his senses were, so the moment the female in the back booth had stiffened and shot beneath her table, he had noticed everything about her and had catalogued her with an approximate height and facial features that stood out. Of course he also noticed her hair. Out of curiosity and habit, he went to his usual booth and observed her actions by following the chakra in her body.

She had been so quiet and stiff he realized that there was something about him that gave her the feeling that she needed to hide from him. It was not a strange feeling but it was the first time someone had so conspicuously tried to be inconspicuous to the point of peaking his interest. Why did she want to hide from him? It had not been the usual fear he received from others that she had in her being, so why? Crawling on dusty floors was not enjoyable for most females and the pinkette was clearly enough of a dango fanatic to take the plate with her to the underside of the table in the next booth. He had seen her eyes light up when the new plate of dango had appeared.

He ignored the rustles and scuffs she made as she crawled along the booths, staying perfectly still and waiting to see what she would do. It was quite obvious that she had been planning to run off in as unobvious a way as possible but the owner had decided to ruin it for her. The old man had then walked over to him with a teapot in one hand and scratching his head with the other.

"I wonder why she did that... "

"Kanbaji-san..." He said quietly, waiting for the man to turn his attention onto him.

"Yes Itachi-san?"

"May I ask, who was that?"

"Oh.. that was Sakura-chan. Comes here all the time!"

"Aa.."

"She's not regular like you though." He said, not perturbed by the fact that Itachi did not say very much. "She comes by very often, but it is usually earlier in the evening, today was irregular and she seemed really deep in thought."

"I see."

"Well enjoy the dango Itachi-san."

Said Uchiha nodded politely, picked up the stick and proceeded to bite it in an extremely elegant fashion.

"Ma... I don't know how you eat that so cleanly, but you know something?" He asked, "The both of you always have the same dango, with the same sauce. I tried adding just a little, tiny, barely different twist to the recipe and she completely freaked out."

Itachi merely continued biting his dango, carefully picking out information from what he understood of the dialogue from the man. Her name was Sakura, she clearly had a tongue with a very sensitive palate and also came to this stall very often. She usually stays there until her tea and dango is completely finished, including the sauce. It is the first time the plate has not been cleaned out and the cup is half-empty. This, he deduced meant that she was quite systematic, but obviously his presence here today, coupled with the fact that something had been heavily on her mind when she came in led her to take an impulsive course of action. So a fairly emotion run person who still had enough control to control the emotions. Although somewhat sloppy, her 'escape' had taken some thinking as she had not just run away, rather she had stayed still for a while before making a move.

Now that he thought about it, he knew of only one person that had pink hair and was called Sakura. She had come by their home once with the Kyuubi container, Uzumaki Naruto to 'pick-up' Sasuke for a team camping session a few miles from Konoha. Short, bright and quite infatuated with his younger brother. Her high-pitched squeals were easily heard from his room and her not noticing him when he walked in briefly was tantamount to how concentrated she was on the picture of Sasuke.

So the pinkette today was someone who he knew, but was not acquainted with. Sasuke rarely spoke of her, but when he did they were mostly unkind complaints. She clearly had never met him before, as Sasuke's brother, and had instead seemed rather desperate to be away from him instead of pestering him like many of Sasuke's previous fangirls had. Speaking of Sasuke, the boy had left on a mission he claimed was a team training regimen, it confused Itachi as to why the pinkette was still here if she was supposed to be on a mission with the rest of the team.

Puzzled but interested, he finished of the last of his dango, placed money on the counter and left to follow the female. It was easy as she had not masked her chakra, but he was surprised by where she had led him. At first, he thought she had realized he was following her and had purposely brought him to the run down area in the other far end of Konoha, opposite to where the stall was, but then she had just collapsed against a lamp post and heaved.

Did she live in a beggars town? One of the most run-down areas of Konoha where anyone without a home or ways of livelihood came. They begged off the street and stole. Was she a thief? Was there in fact another Sakura who was the genin on his brother's team?

He continued following her past the broken-down buildings and into an alleyway well hidden behind many walls. He followed her walking over walls and along buildings until the finally reached a hidden part, way past the beggars town. It shocked him when she went into one of the apartments and lit candles. How could she live here? He couldn't feel even a weak, tiny, flickering chakra signature. Hers was the only one for a half-mile.

Cloaking himself in a genjutsu, he peeked into the room and for the first time, felt pity for another person. Ninja or not, she had clearly lost her parents, judging by the pictures of the older woman and man on a dresser. He guessed that the management had just given her some money and a room in an apartment that was probably already full of civilians. As a ninja, they probably just left her to her own devices, -save for the money because it was a standard issue kind of law-, especially since her parents were gone and no one could raise the issue at the office.

She was living in far worse a condition than Naruto ever had been. He doubted there were any working facilities in the apartment whatsoever. Even Naruto had working electricity ans water. Granted there were no bullying or stone-throwing, but Naruto's life had gotten better. It seemed like she had been thrown into this with little other choice.

He wondered how she had found this place too. Unless he had been investigating the entire area, he would not have found this place at a first glance.

Itachi looked up into the sky and sighed.

It was nearly time for dinner and the clan was diagonally across Konoha.

* * *

Review it guys. What do you think? I wasn't planning to focus on Itachi, but hey, thing's happen you know?

XXXXX

Okay, I know she's in a terrible situation and no one can actually beat Naruto's past, but he technically still had the Hokage's and the ANBU, plus the important ones all knew he was Minato's son. I'm not trying to make Sakura more pitiful than Naruto, just that, after the invasion, hundreds of civilians and homes would definitely have been compromised and Sakura is the one ninja who just happened to have her parents taken away because they couldn't defend themselves. So she ended up here.

I hope I didn't make Itachi too OOC.

Enjoy. :)


	4. Chapter 3

Title: The Road To Badass

Summary: "They left me temporarily, so I'm going to make it permanent." The what-if scenario when Sakura decides to make a stand for herself when the Team leaves her behind yet again.

* * *

**Hey guys! So I know the first three chapters came out super fast but that was while I was on holiday. School has restarted and being the total die-hard study biatch I am I've been overloaded with homework. I can't promise to be able to post a new chapter weekly, but trust me, the story is being updated whenever I have the time. **

**I'm a totally busy bee. And now, enjoy~~~**

* * *

The skies were the palest green with only the stars to illuminate the ground she was on. Long strands of grass tickled her calves and thighs and she laughed when she realized they were all feathers. Hundreds of tall bamboo trees surrounded her with songbirds in each and every one of them singing a sweet melody. Daisies appeared with her every step and carpets of thorn less roses were to her beck and call. It smelled of rain and pine with sweet, heavy scent of honey.

Was this heaven?

It certainly felt like it. She leaped high into the sky and with a swish of her hands flew higher. It had to be heaven, what else could be so wonderful?

Perhaps she had died in her sleep and the gods had welcomed her here.

They had certainly gifted her with an amazing skill she mused, and with a flick of her wrist levitated the dew drops off their leaves and into the sky.

_Sakura..._

Was someone calling her?

She turned around and round, looking for the source of the voice.

_Sakura..._

Who was that?

_**Sakura!**_

She jolted and watched in horror as her previously white and pretty dream faded into black and white nothingness.

_Inner? What are you doing? _

**_Your alarm clock is ringing and you have just been playing in your little white wonderland!_**

Sakura cracked open an eye and stared blearily at the still dark sky. The first cracks of dawn were very far into the horizon and her hidden apartment block was in no way able to receive it so she really couldn't tell whether it was morning or night yet.

"Ugh..." She fumbled her hand around her floor, looking for her ringing alarm when she realized something. There was no ringing. So why the hell was she awake then?

_INNER!_

**_WHAT!_**

_WHY DID YOU WAKE ME UP AT THIS FREAKING UNGODLY HOUR!_

**_Calm your non-existent boobs Sakura_**

Inner ignored Sakura's slight gasp of outrage.

_**Yes that's right, you heard me, I JUST WENT THERE.**_

_You freaking-_

**_Whatever, I don't care, have you forgotten our freaking priority list?_**

_Inner we don't have a priority list._

**_Well we do now. _**

_..._

**_And your alarm will ring in about a minute so go get ready. We have to meet the freaking green-forever-high-sugar-addicted-monster for training._**

_You know.. you make a pretty good alarm clock Inner._

_**Shut up and get ready you sucker.**_

_Right right! I'm going already._

Oh for heaven's sake it was too, too early in the morning to be doing this.

_**But you need to anyway. Now seriously, shut up and get ready. You have like... ten minutes before you need to leave.**_

Sakura forced her seemingly heavier torso off the bed, trying her utmost not to just give in to the weight on her eyelids and fall back asleep.

"Guh..." She grunted. It took a lot more effort getting out of bed when you were still sleepy compared to doing so when you were rested enough. But she did want to become a better shinobi so...

The sacrifices she now had to make would probably come bull-dozing over her.

Walking to the cardboard boxes at the edge of the room that held her clothes, weapons and items she had taken from her previous house, she bent down and opened the first one. She pulled off her large t-shirt, dirt on some areas and holes on the other, leaving her in a cropped singlet sort of top. The money she was given monthly by the management was just enough for food and the occasional soaps or shampoo. She could not afford bras and all her clothes were what she used to wear, even when she wanted to change them she couldn't.

Sighing, she grabbed the roll of bandages she had stolen from he supplying truck, she had felt a little guilty but hey, if it wasn't in the shop yet, it didn't count. Besides, her thirteen year old budding breasts didn't need a proper sports bra and bandages were relatively cheap. Enough that no one noticed when a box or two went missing. The roads were tough and there was always a profit an loss margin already accounted for.

Sakura rolled the bandages around her chest, over the singlet. with practiced ease and was finished in under twenty seconds. A feat considering it used to take her ten minutes, but months and months of doing it continuously helped she supposed. She would need to figure out how to make the process go faster once her chest got bigger, but in the meantime, it was fine. Then, she raised a miniscule amount of chakra up to her chest from within her body and stretched out till it was thin. She then wrapped it around and across the bandages and the singlet.

She had a real lack of chakra, so much so that using trees as a means for travel was exhausting on her after the first mile or so, but this tiny bit of chakra was so small, she could barely feel it taken from her reserves. It was a useful technique to save up on the bandages. She doubted the small web of chakra could protect her from much, but it kept the bandages from fraying and wear and tear, and after figuring out how to close the holes on her web, it deflected water so she could wear them to shower and they would always stay dry.

She pulled on a pair of spandex shorts and did the same with her chakra, only she webbed it differently so that she would not have to worry about seams breaking and could pull off the shorts without breaking the chakra threads. Satisfied with her work, she put on her usual red dress and did the same as she had with her bandages. By this time, a seventh of her chakra was gone, what with the surface area of the dress and how it's material didn't absorb chakra as well as the bandages did.

Sighing and muttering about how she would need to increase her chakra, she leaped out of the window, chakra to her feet and landed on a series of walls which lead her out of the area, and then took a shortcut out of the beggars village.

* * *

Sakura continued walking till she was off the shortcut's cobbled path. It was hard to distinguish it from the rest of the place considering the place was littered with all sorts of broken shingles, pebbles, and the like. But it was obvious to her. It had the slightest brown and green tinge tracked in from mud and grass. Most of the beggars didn't know it was a path, and even if they did, the didn't know what to do once they were in the forest.

It was a very old path, in her mind at least, she thought as she veered onto a sandier section of grass with and little flowers. She had found this place as a child, three or four when she was sad and upset because she wanted to be a ninja and mother wouldn't let her. She had run out from the house, hidden under a bush at the end of the neighborhood, and then realizing that the bush was in front of a hole in a while, had climbed through it.

She had been gone for the whole day, getting very lost while exploring the forests that were around her home. In the northwest section of Konoha at that time, she realized quickly as she ran into a steel fence that she was close to it's main boundaries, so she had gone deep into the forest, believing whole-heartedly that as long as she kept walking straight and made little markers from rocks, she would find her way back. Little Sakura proved then, to herself, that she was smart.

Halfway through, she found a beautiful place, hidden by a mixture of rainforest plant-life, oak trees and massive shaggy ones. She only realized it because she had heard the stream and it's water, and so had followed it, or she never would have found this place. It was incredibly beautiful and to the young child's eyes,, looked like heaven. The trees cleared towards the top and sunlight streamed in towards the water, creating a little lake of diamonds. It was quite deep she knew, because when she jumped in so she could reach the tiny waterfall coming from the big stones, she ended up swallowing water and freaking out. Not one to be deterred, she calmed herself and went down again, quickly realizing that it wasn't too deep, and was about two feet above her height.

She had come out after playing around and finding a big hole under the stone structure. It had been like magic to her, submerged in water and yet she could still breathe air upon wandering into the little cave. The wonders of air pressure. She could not longer fit, it was a rather small hole now to her, but the whole place was still magical.

The little Sakura had been unsatisfied then, and forgetting all about being mad at mom, decided to continue wandering, up until she hit North-west and had come upon the path into the beggars town. It had been slightly more inhabited had that time, and being afternoon, the were fewer beggars and thieves around so she had not seen much. Suffice to say what she saw was enough and ran straight out of the forest. Over the years she came back continuously and her mother had learned to stop asking where she had been. She dropped tiny seeds around all the paths she found, learned to listen to the different watery paths that verged all over the forest.

This was a part of Konoha she knew very, very well.

It was something akin to home now.

She smiled as she walked past the familiar trees she once saw as strange. They weren't labelled in the books she had read and looked a lot like they had been pieced together instead of one actual tree. Well that was what happened when it's roots were in two different types of soil.

Sakura pushed past the now big bushes, walked onto a finely tread path in the three-feet long grass turning left and right every now and then until she reached a familiar oak tree. Smiling she climbed up it till she reached a certain spot on it, and slid down in between two of it's gigantic roots and straight onto a soft patch of dry soil and grass. It really was like a home to her, but she couldn't stay here all the time and coming here frequently would only alert people to her special place.

Didn't mean she couldn't store a few things here and there.

Wading into the water that hit her waist now, she walked to the little cave in the stone structure and patted it until she found the plastic bag and her items. Soaps, shampoos and some money were all hidden here. The air pressure had become so great that it was essentially a completely dry cave. But she could never be too careful, hence the plastic bags.

Closing her eyes, she put her hair and face under the water, it was for no purpose other than to refresh herself. She had a long day ahead of her and she would much rather shower properly when she had finished training.

"Ahh... Well time to go." She muttered after sticking herself in the little air-pressured cave to dry herself.

_**Ne.. Saku-chyaaaan...**_

_Hmm?_

_**We really need to figure out how to increase our chakra levels.**_

_You don't say inner-chan...?_

**_No! Like seriously! If we have bazillions of chakra, we could do literally ANYTHING._**

_..._

**_WE COULD FLY! WE COULD TREAD AIR! OH GOD WE COULD AIR-WALK!_**

_Inner..._

**_No think about it! Remember energy and wind and controlling it? If we master that damned energy we can use freaking air to kill people without chakra.. well maybe we'd need chakra to sharpen it.. but we can control AIR DUDE! No one can control air! THERES NO ONE IN HISTORY THAT CAN DO THAT!_**

_Inner you talked about chakra for no reason.. and then moved onto air? Yes I read the freaking energy-use manual but I don't know how to access that part in me yet and gee, maybe you should calm DOWN!?_

_**Says the lady who is going nuts! ANY WAY... well we may not need to use chakra on air, but what if we want to use leaves in the air as a walk-way? We technically still need to use chakra to connect to the air particle thingies so it can hold our weight.. you know that right?**_

_Don't you find yourself a little bit out of character?_

**_I REMEMBER STUFF! I LIVE IN YOUR BRAIN_ AND _YOUR SUBCONCIOUS! Deal with it._**

_Okay..._

**_Now you can remove your chakra cloak and stick it back inside you._**

_It's kind of cool that I can do that isn't it?_

**_Dude it's already tainted chakra though._**

_True... but still. It sucks that we can't take chakra from things._

**_Well we can take energy from it, and that, I bet, if we knew how to convert it, could become chakra!_**

_Inner how do you know that?_

**_Wait.. it's kind of like chakra though. If it's in our body, we can do whatever the hell we want with it. Right?_**

_Inner..._

**_You have twenty minutes to get to you training session. Goodbye and have fun in hell._**

_Inner... COME ON!_

**_Alright alright! I'm coming!_**

_You are not allowed to hide in my brain and eat my memory food! I'd like to remember how vanilla and chocolate-apple tiramisu tastes!_

**_Calm down geezus, you still know how it tastes! You just feel it slightly blocked. Calm down and GO!_**

Sakura groaned and walked under one of the oak tree's roots and walked another familiar but obscured path away from her haven and onto a more obvious one out of the forest.

* * *

It was certainly an ungodly hour of the day. Any human being would feel the way. You could say a human being should be obligated to feel that way. After all, who has their body's system ready and rearing to go at _four-fucking thirty _in the morning?

Well never let it be said that the young green beast did not learn morning excitement from the epitome, of bright-eyed-and-bushy-tailed-in-the-ungodly-hour-of-the-morning Gai. Yes the man with caterpillars for eyebrows and blinding glares in his teeth was certainly cheery, happy and very clearly _high._

He was like a Naruto who had been told by a certified, un-bribed scientist that ramen was certainly healthy for one's body and provided any and all nutrition needed. In fact, it was even encourage to eat it as humanly often as possible.

He was like a squirrel with a lifetime supply of nuts that was still GROWING.

He was like.. like... _**Ants that had a jar of free sugar for every leg they can count. **_

Indeed, as eloquently as the two Sakuras had put it, the man was indeed high.

_Cheerier than a kid in a free candy store without mommy._

Sakura would go as far as to start labelling the man a god.. or perhaps just an almost god because, as far as she knew, gods were supposed to be all... godly... in their elegance and attractiveness and she felt a bit bad for herself for having to say that the man was absolutely neither. Like, seriously, if she had to deal with an unnaturally happy, smiling, eyebrow shaking man clad in a _bodysuit_ that emphasized **everything **whether she wanted to see it or not, there needed to be some kind of reward in terms of shallow things like ATTRACTIVENESS!

Sure she was glad she was going to be useful soon but come on... she needed to learn about the little things in life and now was a good time to figure out that little things should include level of attractiveness... amount of eyebrow fuzz needed. Not things like being grateful. Well now she sounded absolutely ungrateful. That sucked.

The man was still carrying on about youthfulness and she had long tuned him out. In fact, it was quite possibly once he uttered the word youthful.

_**Wait I think he's saying something important. Listen!**_

_Okay... you better be right._

Forcing her attention back to him, she perked up when she caught the tail end of the words Taijutsu and Type.

"THERE ARE SO MANY, MANY KINDS OF TAIJUTSU AND I SHALL ENDEAVOR TO TEACH YOU ALL OF THEM!"

She nodded to look like she was extremely interested.

"Why, there are Taijutsu's created ALL OVER THE WORLD and I shall TRY MY UTMOST TO SHOW YOU ALL OF THEM NOW!"

And he did.

Almost as if she were in a musical, or a movie of some sort. He leaped out onto a field and began his 'show.'

She learned quite a bit that day.

Kirigakure no Sato- Created in Water Country but was very rarely used by anyone there since bloodshed and brute force were so popular and if you weren't strong enough you sucked. It was a very fluid kind of taijutsu, but it was neither a good offense or defense martial art. It concentrated on being flexible with much arching of the back, spiraling around a weapon but completely avoiding any contact with it. Where the whole body is one center of gravity, no limb was better than the other or had better support. It was actually very much like a dance Sakura decided. A dance that Gai could not do. He explained it well in a slightly quieter booming voice after an old lady yelled at him for waking up her grandkids, but he was terrible at showing her what she had to do. Sure he could do the katas, but it was clear that although he was all-rounded in terms of strength and speed, he was too bulky to be able to effectively spiral around anything fluidly.

Even a tree.

She was still interested and was going to study up on this form.

Kumogakure no Sato - Hailing from Lightning country and an extremely speed orientated taijutsu. It focused highly on being fast to the point that even a chakra enhanced eye could not detect you, and it was a speed that should not be enhanced by chakra control. It aimed to train the students to be so fast, everything in their surrounding area stayed still when they moved. While in Kiri the were focused of being speedy while being extremely fluid, this was a style that concentrated very much on speed. Also the tenketsu points of the human body were something to be known by heart by every Kumo ninja. Every kick and punch was to be the end of the person, whether it was fainting or death if the user so chose. Many lightning-country ninjas were adept but few pushed the envelope to this point. Nevertheless, this combined with their lightning skill was formidable and highly dangerous. They had hand movements in a chopping or stabbing movement and all other movement of limbs were angled in a way that provided more speed that strength.

Speed was something she needed and Gai clearly was amazing in this aspect. If Lee was that fast during the Chuunin exams, what more his mentor right?

Iwagakure no Sato - Earth Country had a typical style to it, and while speed was still expected, it was not nearly as precise as Kumo or as fluid as Kiri, but they were strong. Their main style was punching. If there could ever be twenty-eight ways to hold your fist and wrist to punch someone, it was Iwa. Their punches did not blow a hole through someone the way Tsunade-sama's did, and they did not have that strength, but they were incredibly good at punching. To the point that when punching someone, before the punch landed, a wave of air pressure would hit the person first. They also trained everyone to have very strong muscles. Not in a strength to punch someone way, but to steel and cord the muscles to avoid serious injury.

Konohagakure no Sato - Fire Country. Well she knew it well herself but honestly, she just sucked at it. The fire style of fighting was the backbone of every martial form in Konoha whether it was the Uchiha's or Hyuugas, they merely refined it with their hand gestures or hip twists or whatever it was they did. They had neither angled nor fluid movements and they did not have needle point precise fingers the way Kumo did. No one in Konoha could be as fast or fluid as Kiri and Iwa was very strong compared to many of the shinobi here. But they did have an advantage. They were well-rounded where it mattered. They had a style of fighting both somewhat elegant but brutal. Sure they didn't slice people with perfect line the way Kiri did, they stabbed and slashed. Their style was opened handed and highly defensive. Anyone she knew who was amazing at taijutsu was none besides the green body-suited man in front of her and she only ever saw genjutsu or ninjutsu. Sure they specialized but few people here were actually good at taijutsu basic requirements, not even talking about a style.

Kakashi did not punch or roundhouse kick or anything. He did not spin on the balls of his feet while delivering a kick so solid it would go right through his opponent.

Epiphany, everyone was amazing at ninjutsu or genjutsu. Never just taijutsu. Stamina, speed... what about form? Not just basic martial art?

Did they really not have a proper style besides the basic speed combined with punches and kicks? They had defense but that was all... To do list : Research Konoha.

Kaze no Kuni - Wind Country. They were a solid style that focused on being as fluid in movement as Kiri while being as deadly as Kumo. However, fluid meant avoiding, not dancing around. Anyway, their main style was a little bit rough, while being somewhat elegant, but still deadly. They did not attack tenketsu points, rather going for the arteries and important musculature. Interesting... Sakura noted it down mentally. They were fast but smooth, their attacks not particularly precise, hands usually with a kunai or with one hand held to the chest, another on offense. It was an interesting technique for sure. She did not like the way they all-rounded their martial style... but having a hand for offense and another for defense was definitely something to look up.

"Now Sakura-chan..." Gai said in a low and serious voice, "This is something I have told every class I have taught and yet very few of them understand it. In order to master any of these martial styles, you have to have a basic martial form ready and a level of basic taijutsu necessities that is high enough to successfully master any of the katas of these forms. Any shinobi can learn to be flexible to learn Kiri's style, but if he is not fast enough, or has a natural balance strong enough to displace an attack, he will die on the battlefield. You can learn all of these Katas, but it will not matter where it should if you are not fast or strong enough. I want you to have a comprehensive flexibility training everyday. You will do basic strength building exercises for an hour each night no matter how tired you are. You will beat your record in running every week. Even by just a second, you will still do it. I am your mentor now, a teacher for the moment, but you asked to learn taijutsu, and I want you to learn it exceptionally well. I will teach you for no more that three years, and I know you will do extremely well in these next three years, but you have to want to do it."

"If you don't, I will still train you in the basic katas of Konoha, I will still push you to be stronger, but I will not make it extensive, because you have to want it to be a part of you. Taijutsu is not something you just learn, you live it, it becomes instinct on the battlefield, when chakra is gone, all you have left is energy, and when that is gone, it is willpower. With willpower, your body will do anything you command of it, and I want to know if you will do that."

_**Wow...**_

_I know right?_

**_He... he was cool Sakura._**

_I know right?_

**_Who knew he could be totally badass right?_**

_Right..._

**_Dude... I think... I think he believes in us..._**

_Uh-huh..._

**_You need to answer him Sakura..._**

_Oh shit! Right!_

Mentally shaking her head, she breathed in and looked him in the eye.

She may complain about working hard.

She may hate everyday that she forced herself to work harder than the previous day.

But she would do it.

"I want to Gai-sensei. Please teach me because I will give it my all."

He smiled at her, and then with all his seriousness gone, he gave her a blinding smile.

"Good! Let us get started then Sakura! May the fires of youth burn brighter than the sun!"

Sighing, she followed him to the training grounds, a lopsided slightly disbelieving smile on her face.

This.. would be a tiring, but interesting.

* * *

Hey guys how do you like it?

Sorry about the earlier they're-their thing. Dead tired after a long day and I woke up like ten minutes ago haha.

Any way thank you so much **MinaBlahBlahBlahAnimeFan **for telling me since I wouldn't have noticed.

XXXXX

Does anyone like cool Gai? I don't know if the styles are in any way correct because I just followed the country names to do it, in case you did not notice, but anyway if theres anything terribly wrong, or you have suggestions, write me a review or pm me because it is always welcome. Criticism is extremely welcome but if you are just going to flame, I will come right back and flame you because if you have the right of 'opinion and speech' then so do I. I'm not a hardass but hey, if you are a jerk you will get an unhappy jerk version of me.

Smiles and please do review/comment even if it is to tell me something as little as 'Good story' or 'Going well'. It brightens the day and keeps me cranking our fics.


	5. Chapter 4

Title: The Road To Badass

Summary: "They left me temporarily, so I'm going to make it permanent." The what-if scenario when Sakura decides to make a stand for herself when the Team leaves her behind yet again.

* * *

Disclaimer : I do not own Naruto and it's characters, I am merely borrowing them. However, I do own the delicious heavenly dango worth of Itachi's time and it's owner - Kanbaji-san.

Happy reading guys!

* * *

Stalkers.

Stalker for singular vocabulary.

The definition of stalker in his brain was 'A person who continuously follows around an unwilling party/parties and does actions that are not keen or wholly disliked by such parties such as/is not restricted to: Taking pictures, tapes, sending continuous gifts, sending continuous mail, constantly harassing said party.

And in the case directly below him for but a fleeting moment, stealing panties.

He had been walking on the rooftops somewhere around East Konoha in the district of the wealthy merchants and the occasional noble, but not shinobi family when he heard the shriek of outrage and anger. What could have prompted a female to make such a loud, ear-ringing sound at three in the morning? And in the wealthy side of Konoha? The females were born and bred as elegant seen and not heard types.

Curious, he directed a small amount of chakra to his ear as he moved past the main wall separating the village from the forest and the boundary ahead of it. What he heard was most interesting and distressing about the nature of some of Konoha's men.

"Why do you keep stealing my panties you jerk!" The woman had a harsh voice, but she was clearly familiar with the man and her tones were kept low.

"I am not stealing them! They were mine to begin with!" His?

"I am the one who wears them!"

"Well I bought them!"

"You did not!"

"I did!"

"You're doing this because I'm married now aren't I?"

"You're the one who broke up with me!"

"It was a two-night stand you lowlife!"

"You slept with this lowlife!"

"Stop following me around! I don't need any trouble from you!"

"I spent a lot of money on those flowers you tossed!"

"So?"

"I expect a compensation!"

"What kind of compensation?" Her voice took a turn for the wary.

"I won't sleep with you again, you think I'm disgusting after the little accident with your daddy don't you?"

"I-I don't know what you're talking about!"

"Fine. But these panties are mine. I do need to know what I got disfigured for after all." The man's voice held a strange quality with this sentence.

"What?"

"Hush you little rich gold-digging bird. I am not stalking you anyway.. this is merely repayment."

"Repayment for what!?"

"For going into something you clearly had no intention of following through on!"

"You...will you ever stop?"

"Well you have a very fetching little sister..."

By now Itachi had heard enough and closed of the chakra flow. He did not wish to hear anymore of the man's threats. However it did get him thinking, the man clearly had been wronged and was taking it out on said woman, but was he doing the right thing? Was it unfair to the woman? It seemed like she had dumped him after he had so-called gotten disfigured, and from the man's angry, taunting remarks she was probably married..

By right the man should have been compensated he supposed, but why did he then steal her underpants? Was it as a revenge? A sick, twisted kind of masochistic mind game he played with himself?

He sighed and continued on to border patrol. The crime rate in Konoha seemed to be going down, seemed being the operative word here. The bigger crimes such as murder, rape etcetera were indeed much less as shinobi tended to make extremely good police members, but the petty crime rate, especially embarrassing ones like these were perhaps higher than they viewed it. Perhaps a little relaying of information to the Uchiha Police Force would do the trick.

Then again as a shinobi clan with a higher status, would they indeed pay attention to an anonymous note? Uchiha Itachi was not below doing good, he just preferred not to call attention to himself.

* * *

That was exactly what he told himself when he concealed himself from a pinkette.

He had just finished a chakra-intensive check on the outskirts of Konoha down to the steel gates and had taken an extra half-round to detour down to the North East section of Konoha to take his time before going home. He had not had a chance to come here for the past six months since the invasion being so busy and his father had kept an eye on him, he did not wish to let him know of this place and so had not left the compound.

However, he was finally saddled with border duty and this meant he could spend some time here taking a longer route to get home, and possible pause there.

Uchiha Itachi was one of those people who were very fast. His natural speed was a little bit exhausting on the typical Jounin and his highest speed without tiring himself was more than adequate for most ANBU to keep up with. His training was extremely intense and he pushed himself ten times harder at each session. One mile, at his normal pace took anywhere between two minutes and two minutes. That was not an error, he was scarily punctual and on the dot. If he so wished to push the envelope, he could finish a mile in three seconds flat. But he didn't need to so nobody knew this.

His duties were always finished on time and the older Uchiha rarely had the time to sneak away or relax until he received his first shift for chakra-intensive searches since certain unrest in other countries, so he did today.

Which led to him finding Sakura there first and concealing himself from her, and then being the curious individual he was, following her.

He hadn't meant to, it's just that when he found her three miles from him and four hundred meters from his destination, he became concerned that she might find it. And she did. In fact, when she had gone past the old oak tree that was at least a century old and the shaggy leafed willow trees along with the large rainforest shrubs, he had panicked a little bit. How had she found this place?

He had come across it once after finishing an incognito mission when he first made ANBU. He found the trees growing ever so-slightly strange and had heard a slightly distinct water-rushing kind of sound. Curious- yes as a child- he went and checked the place out, fell in love, or however he showed his affection for the cosy and warmth radiating place, and had gone to great lengths to hide it.

He had not known that Sakura came here, and was a bit perturbed to find her so at ease and comfortable with the place.

The girl even had a little hiding spot beneath the water! He had not known there was that.

Had she been here longer than him?

But all the inane questions aside, he had noticed that she had very fine chakra-control. It had been difficult to detect the slight hum of chakra on her body and clothing, but it had caught his attention when she emerged from the water with only her face, hair and limbs wet. The droplets of water on her dress and slid right off. He continued watching her as she wound bandages around her feet and put on her shoes.

Interesting.

He would have to watch out for her presence in future, just in case she did not wish to be interrupted.

And then a disturbing thought occurred to him.

Could he be misconstrued for a stalker in this way?

But it had been the first time they had sort of bumped into each other, although he had developed a habit of following her to wherever she went each time, it happened at the dango stall and it was happening here. He most certainly did not wish to become a stalker. It was preposterous behavior and extremely undignified. It was inelegant, rude and a direct infringement of the persons privacy.

He would not follow her any longer and any more meetings would be face to face with not just him alone seeing her face and her not seeing his. If they bumped into each other, it would also be face to face and purely coincidental.

* * *

Sakura did not notice the Uchiha hidden behind an S-ranked cloaking jutsu that only a Sharingan as developed as his could detect. She never saw him follow her, leave and return four hours later.

It was perfectly acceptable really, that she did not see him or feel his presence, Gai certainly gave no indication of having noticed him. But really if Sakura knew he had been there she would have been subtly blaming Gai for nearly killing her, it being the reason she could not detect the six-feet of confused and curious nearby, nevermind he had a very high-level genjutsu on that was nigh impossible to notice. Even if they detected the ripple, the could not uncloak it.

That was the power of the genjutsu, but the hypothetical Sakura really did not give a damn.

Said rose-head was currently face down on the grass, kissing it as passionately as a dead fish would what with how tired she was. The man had pushed her past her limits, and then kicked her ass over the next limits, and then shoved her over the next set. Honestly the man had no boundaries!

He made her train for four hours! Four freaking hours! She really shouldn't be complaining because yes, she did want to be trained really, really badly, and true, she only had three months before going back to Tsunade-sama to tell her she was ready to be trained, but FOR HEAVEN'S SAKES her lactic acid buildup was so high, if she exploded right now there would be no blood, only lactic acid!

He spent three hours making her do bodyweight strength and resistance exercises, and then an hour just running at alternating intervals such as, one, ridiculously fast and two, in pain and possible a fast-moving zombie. And get this, the running was after she had done all the exercises he had made her do. Three minutes of five exercises, and then a hundred reps of each, repeating ten times, for one body part.

Her upper body strength was sadly dismal and she had quickly realized this when she was halfway through her first set of supported pushups, tricep dips, pull-ups, handstand pushups and slow, but hard punches with five kilograms attached to each wrist. And of course, if she stopped, he would make her do another hundred pushups. But that wasn't all, she also had a very tough lower body training routine she had to continue with every morning. Same drill as her upper body training, but naturally, a different exercise. Squats, lunge switches with jumps, kicking a tree stump five hundred times, squat jumps and last of all, high knees for five minutes, and in between each minute, fifty tuck jumps. Her torso, what with her back already having a regimen with her upper body and lower body training helping out, she, thankfully had a little less to do here, but it was not at all less tiring. Crunches while hanging off a tree brunch, a plank with one arm and leg behind her, keeping stationary while hanging onto a branch and lifting her legs up and down with a weight the same mass as she was attached to her legs.

After all of this training to build muscle in her legs, to protect her 'youthful' joints and tendons as Gai had said, she went running, and not just any good old-fashioned running. They did interval running. She already mentioned this up there before her training thing started, but seriously, who is able to run after a killer workout like that right? Other than Gai of course, but seriously!

The man had broken a sweat, but guess what? He did not look in the least exhausted or tired, not even bedraggled.

Snorting slightly. Bedraggled. That's what she was. She was so sweaty she looked like she just came out of the shower.

_**Hot, sweaty.. not to mention flushed...**_

_Inner..._

**_What?_**

_Be quiet, my head is already pounding._

**_I know, it's like a drumroll in here._**

_Shut up._

Sakura eyed the little ant trying it's best to crawl up her arm, but struggling terribly and failing to do so. She was dripping in sweat and the poor insect didn't stand a chance.

"Come Sakura let us do some stretches! It will release the lactic acid in your joints and muscles!"

"Hai..."

She wondered why he insisted on standing in front of her you know? Him being sweaty made the suit stick to him in a certain way and him doing a low lunge among other buttock-emphasizing things really did not help her oncoming blindness.

Well, the first day of training was almost over, but it never really was, now was it?

Training, was her life, it was going to have to be if she wanted to become a better shinobi. If this was what she had to do, even if she had to drag herself through a dango cave without eating any of the dango, she would.

Finished with the stretches and the soreness already creeping up on her, she grabbed the new weights he had bought for her, put them on after chakra-webbing them and headed off to her little piece of heaven. She had the rest of the day to get ready for after all.

* * *

Physically, she was pathetic.

But she had a mentality that screamed tough and she never gave up, even if she looked like that one last set would kill her, even when she glared at him with killing intent, she had powerful fires of determination.

He shook his head and sighed. 'Kakashi... you really let this one get away.'

Oh, the man who was always cheery had his quiet moments. He knew all about their abandonment of the rose-headed girl, the almost deliberate exclusion of her, and yet she was the Spring between their Summer and Winter, she was the one who, like every kunoichi in a team, functioned as an important family member that the boys could go to, to listen to, to protect, but they had gotten that wrong.

They hadn't protected her, they had smothered her, and then left her there in the after effects of their own doings. They as a team, could not just function without Spring. Whether they believed it or not, it was always the female that brought a link to the rest of the team. Without Tenten, Neji and Lee would be constant rivals with a lack of fun or mellowness. Without Ino, Shikamaru and Chouji would just be quiet. Kiba and Shino were linked together because Hinata brought them closer.

Team 7 was not a team without Sakura, they just didn't know that yet.

But he was here for now, and although he could not replace his rival, but he could try to rebuild her confidence in herself and relight the fire of her youth.

* * *

The weights were bloody heavy.

No. Not just bloody heavy, they were so heavy, all her blood had left her legs and had gone hiding in her stomach. Medically impossible but it certainly felt that way. She wondered how heavy they were, they couldn't be more than five kilograms, and yet her legs felt as weak as a baby's. She wheezed a little as she trudged as quietly as she could back to the forest, the path hidden by a large brick wall.

She was exhausted. Her hair was stuck to her face, her clothes were already fraying and her eyes were stinging thanks to all that sweat.

But she had made it through and was coming back for more tomorrow.

She didn't want to.

_**But hell yeah we will!**_

* * *

Hey guys! Short chappie because I'm exhausted and school is headed by sadistic people.

Anyways, review and if you have any ideas or thoughts, or just want to say hi. :)


	6. Chapter 5

Title: The Road To Badass

Summary: "They left me temporarily, so I'm going to make it permanent." The what-if scenario when Sakura decides to make a stand for herself when the Team leaves her behind yet again.

* * *

Disclaimer : I do not own Naruto and it's characters, I am merely borrowing them. However, I do own the delicious heavenly dango worth of Itachi's time and it's owner - Kanbaji-san.

Happy reading guys!

* * *

"Chakra... chakra... chakra..." Sakura muttered in her terrible uncomfortable situation.

Hunched, on the floor because she really couldn't kneel after that training session, wet hair plastered to her neck and fingers carefully thumbing page after page.

How long had she been in here?

So she had finished training close to... 9.00? And relaxed... rinsed at her little waterfall... had a healthy breakfast of dango... and it was 2.30 in the afternoon. She had spent at least three hours leafing through page after page, book after book in her quest for knowledge. Where were those damn book anyway? The librarian had pointed her over to the shinobi-classified area that was open to Genin, but it was getting really tough to find even one book on chakra-stamina. All she had found was a sentence about meditation and mental states being powerful.

But you also just had to know how to hit those mental states!

"Ugh..." Her head hurt and throbbed as she got up into a seated position.

**_Hey baka, you know there is still one book you haven't gone through yet right?_**

_What book?_

**_See that tiny little book in-between those tomes?_**

_WHERE!_

**_Left... left... no turn your head a little more right... _**

Oh...

In-between two thick books titled _Chakra: Tips on Controlling it For the Young Shinobi _and _Fire Techniques and How They Came to Be_, was a tiny, thin little sliver of a book. She would have missed it if Inner hadn't pointed it out to her. Carefully, she reached over and pulled it out. The leather top felt somewhat crumbly and the dust on it was really thick.

She opened it and-

_**OH MY LORDY!**_

Dropped it immediately.

_**Idiot! Pick it up!**_

For once, she did not question the annoying little bug in her head.

_**Look, it says there it's Jounin-classified. ONLY.**_

_What! I better tell the librarian!_

**_Wait! Read it first why don't you! _**

_But..._

**_Look! All the other ones had nothing on anything! The only thing useful was that one book about Don' Yoku, and that was like... a detailed story about his adventures. Nothing about chakra or energy!_**

_Yes Inner.. but still... I mean... it's for Jounin! I shouldn't even be reading it!_

**_And the Chidori was totally Genin-level. Like, any seven year-old could totally do that._**

_Yea.. but.._

**_Look, this is the best bet we are going to get! You and I both know, that techniques and stuff are all in the Chuunin section. Everything here is so basic, there isn't any ninjutsu. Only the origins of those jutsus. Look at that scratched out traditional writing on the cover. It's old stuff. Just read it damnit!_**

_Okay... Okay._

She opened it carefully and blew away the dust particles. Inner was right. Everything in here would be impossible to read, or at least to anyone who hadn't spent their free time learning the old language.

"Energy..." She whispered out the title of the book.

_Inner... it says energy! Not chakra. But energy!_

_Inner?_

Well, her eyes were fairly bugged out, so Sakura imagined she was feeling a little bit fascinated.

Hunching in on herself once more in an effort to make sure that the librarian really did not see her, she began reading.

_The skies are a clear blue today... _

* * *

Over in a dark corner, a figure looks down onto the pink-haired, fair-skinned child.

The genjutsu placed over the leather-bound notebook was a fairly powerful one, few doujutsu could see past it, and even those needed the user to be highly attuned to chakra, almost the way a sensor would be, the girl clearly was not trained in the sensory arts... how then had she been able to see it?

Could it be her natural chakra-mind fluctuations?

She was not an enemy of Konoha, that much was obvious.

Well, she had seen past the genjutsu, she was worthy enough, the figure supposed leaving her alone would not do any harm. For now.

* * *

Konoha was a place hidden beneath genjutsu after genjutsu, a maze hidden in a maze of a thousandth-folds. The trees built around the shinobi home were filled with chakra and a humming of an unidentifiable power.

In the massive forest that civilians never dared to roam, lay Konoha, and yet the true wonderment of it were the forest around it and it's unconventional magic.

Unconventional you say? Yes, indeed. Because it was magic in the form of poisonous plants. Dangerous, irritating, terrifying plants of the most poisonous order came in every species and sub-species possible. They could be intertwined into a grotesque form of unseen, rare variety or your common rat-killing-fumed plant.

Well, a dazed and tired Sakura, at three in the afternoon had forgotten that North-west was opposite South and was dragging her feet past the sandy, safer paths of this forest. As luck would have it, it was not her lucky day and she walked straight into a tree with sandy-colored bark, which moved, and was warm. And also had a very big chest.

_Hang on. A big chest?_

**_Hang on, we don't have this kind of sand in the N-W forest._**

_Not to mention our grass isn't this thick..._

**_I think we have walked into a person._**

_A crazy one, because we are pretty deep in this forest..._

**_And no one ever comes all the way out here._**

Unable to appreciate the good fortune of being able to have her face in a rather popular rack of Konoha, Sakura made a face and backed up to see who it was she had walked into.

Her eyes met with one infamous Mitarashi Anko. Legendary lady with a penchant for insanity.

Yes, she had just made a face at this scary woman's boobs.

What was she thinking?

Well she didn't need to start the conversation that was for sure.

"Kid you have some real guts. Smooshing your face in this and then making that face!" She sneered/smiled.

Sakura gulped and backed up even more.

"Oh I wouldn't do that if I were you kiddo. That's a _Pulentas Scriverus, _my favorite plant."

_What is a Pulentas Scriverus?_

As if reading her thoughts, Anko answered "It's a cassava morphed with a mutated baneberry. Causes cardiac inflammation and within the hour, certain death by a slowly melting heart."

_A SLOWLY MELTING HEART!?_

**_SAKURA I DON'T WANT TO DIE HERE!_**

"Of course, you need to be able to activate it with chakra.. and you don't know how, so I guess you're safe." Sakura breathed a sigh of relief. "For now." And she sucked it right back in.

"Uh...uh..." She stammered. Today really wasn't a day for her to die and she still wanted to finish reading her book.

She eyed the maniacal glint in the woman's eye, down to her body posture. Okay, the woman had a Konoha hitai-ite on, so she was shinobi of Konoha, and she probably was a Jounin since Sakura couldn't see the Chuunin flak vest was no where to be seen...

She was probably at a pretty high status considering she had no Jounin vest on and could get away with it. In short, Sakura doubted she was in a lot of danger right now.

"You wouldn't hurt me."

"Oh?" Anko grinned and folded her arms across her chest.

"Yeah." This was not a time to lose her confidence.

"Alright, tell me then kiddo. Why wouldn't I hurt you?"

"Well, for starters you are a Shinobi of Konoha, that much is obvious, and so you are subject to the Hokage's rule..."

"So what kid? You're that little smartie on Team 7, I'm sure you've read enough history books to know that I'm not the most... what was that word?" She paused for a moment before smirking, "Stable... so... I wouldn't be so sure about me being under the Hokage's thumb."

Anko eyed the little girl in front of her. Short, thin, not a lot of muscle. Pink-haired, wide-eyed and rather innocent and naïve-looking. Oh, she knew the girl well enough. The only one in Team 7 not on the same level as her teammates. She was so far away in terms of everything it wasn't even funny. Although... she had seen the weights on the kid, obviously from the spandex freak- Gai, and she had been the only one to get full marks on her exam sheet.

Not bad, she guessed. And she was pretty observant, for a Genin.

It would be fun to toy with her.

The kid was already gulping down all that saliva, what was she going to say, beg her to spare her? She was smart enough to get what Anko was driving at her, but this was the part where lots of kids ran off.

What would she do?

* * *

What should she do?

Not being under the Hokage's thumb? Not stable!? That woman could attack her right now and she would be totally screwed! Wait.

That's right. She could have attacked her by now if she wanted, but the woman was smiling. Now Sakura couldn't read eyes very well, but Anko's weren't particularly maniacal... at least not the harmful kind she had seen in Zabuza, Orochimaru or the more dangerous foaming at the mouth thieves in the beggar district...

"I'm not worth you hurting me..." She started out. Slow, careful, testing the waters.

As expected, a smug smile was on her face and her eyebrow rose, very Kakashi-like when he was questioned about something he said that was false.

"In fact... I'm willing to bet that you are just having fun with me."

"Oh really? How can you be so sure?"

Sakura took in a deep breath, "I'm not. But I have facts and logic that prove to me that you won't hurt me."

"Tell me kiddo. Tell me with everything you've got."

"Alright. First, you may not act like you are under the Hokage's rule, but history, like you said I've read a lot about, proves you may not act like it, but you still defer to them. You may not act like it, but the fact that you can tell me that you are not stable proves you are in fact, in complete control of your mental faculties. Not to mention that if you wanted to hurt me so badly, you would have started already. You are clearly just toying with me."

"And how do you know I won't hurt you with all this toying?"

"I don't know. I just doubt you will."

* * *

Anko smirked.

Smart kid.

"Alright, alright... bravo little munchkin..." She smiled while clapping her hands slowly.

"You are pretty right on all accounts I guess... But never let it be said that this baby was never called crazy."

"I wouldn't." She replied.

"Sure you wouldn't... Walk with me shrimp," Anko said, motioning to the path out of the forest, "So what are you doing out here, all by yourself? Where's that old man of yours?"

The pinkette scrunched her nose. "Old man?"

"Yeah you're perverted sensei. Shouldn't you be training or something?" It didn't escape her notice that Sakura had stiffened slightly at the mention of her sensei. Was he bad at it or something? Probably, but the girl really shouldn't be this far in the poisonous section of Konoha. Or maybe out of Konoha, she might have added some trees around and under the gates with chakra so she could get in and out easy, but still.

"Oh.. he's on this training thing with his team..."

His team?

"His team? You are a member of that team pinky... aren't you?" She doubted her memory was that bad, and the girl wasn't exhibiting signs of mental distress yet.

"No.. I'm not on that team anymore.."

"Huh, doesn't explain why you were out here. You looked like you knew where you were going.."

"I was lost?"

"Kid anyone would have noticed that green equals forest which equals not home, you just kept walking on that path."

"..."

Alright so that was a touchy subject.

"So kid..."

Said kid looked up at her.

"Why didn't you run away?"

Sakura paused for a moment, and then said, "Well, it would have been better to face you on than run away right? You are definitely much faster than me... and facing you on would have the same repercussions as running away since you would catch me?"

"Tch."

"Also, I'm really tired."

Anko laughed on the way out of the forest, baneberries in a little pouch.

Cardiac arrest was really useful on the battlefield.

* * *

Let's back up a bit. Anko Mitarashi.

What had she been doing there in the first place, aside from picking baneberries.

Well for that, we need to first understand, an Anko Mitarashi.

She is a bloodthirsty woman who is playful. Intelligent with extremely good reflexes. Sadistic, unsympathetic... insane are all words used to describe her, but let Anko describe herself for you.

"Crazy, sexy and damn good at what I do." Followed by a fist-pump in the air. Now we all know she was an apprentice of the pedophile snake, Orochimaru and is the only one who survived the cursed seal.

Sexy, because she has a very curvy and lean body. One of the top ten racks in Konoha and the mesh bodysuit does not kill her sexy vibe. She comes off as extremely badass and dangerous to anyone who tries to approach her and so has remained single for a while.

Damn good at what she does, because guys, she trained with the snake-man. She has really powerful abilities, has outmaneuvered _The _Orochimaru with her crazy good relexes not to mention, has precise aim. A tokubetsu jounin is nothing to scoff at and she could become ANBU if deemed it worth the effort she would need.

Crazy because, well she didn't call herself crazy. She just does because every one calls her that and when she reaffirms it, everyone wets their pants. She has a really high immunity to poisons, and that is really good considering a liver is strong enough to take it all, but I'll say she's a little crazy because the woman was in the South section of Konoha's forest, traversable through a certain path that few could distinct from other paths like it, and some amount of undefinable foliage, to test out more, rare poisons on herself. That's right.

_Pulentas Scriveras _wasn't a real plant, but she did however, plan on creating a plant that the same qualities as it did. Sadly, cassava didn't actually do the job so she had spent a few hours there figuring out which poisons would, but testing them on herself. Because, really, a poison that could melt your heart in an hour? Think of the pain. Usually the suckers just died right away.

She didn't know how it worked, but she had applied to T&I and she was planning to test those newly mixed poisons on the to be executed rogues, and if they worked, she would build an immunity to it. Although a melting heart? How would you be immune to it? You would need to get the body to produce the antidote.

And then it hit her.

Convince the body to produce the an antidote to any poison, and not only would she not just be immune to a poison, it would be unable to affect her, should it get past her immunity. Her body could break it down!

This was when she leapt up and pumped her fist in the air, and one Haruno Sakura walked straight into her boobs.

Many minutes later, Haruno Sakura was deemed as Only-retard-in-Konoha-not-to-act-like-one. It was a good accomplishment, the girl just didn't know that yet.

Heck. If she wasn't in Kakashi's team anymore, maybe Anko, the Mitarashi Anko, could train her.

How cool would it be, to have an apprentice, to test poison's with?

And even better, to be totally immune to it, and freak people out with it?

As one Haruno Sakura walked to Kanbaji-san's dango stall to eat, she felt a cold chill down her back and wondered what it was.

* * *

Uchiha Itachi came to a sad realization that day. Of course, the mentally stunted teen did not realize just how sad it was, but it was indeed, a sad realization.

He was stalking Sakura.

He certainly hadn't meant to.

Not at all. It just was since his shift finished this morning after concealing himself from her in the forest, going home for breakfast, training and realizing her chakra signature was a mile away from him, he just had to go and find her.

So he did. With a cloaking jutsu on, he wound himself around alleys and trees, garbage bins and brambly bushes only to find, with some mild volume of horror, that Mitarashi Anko, and her were walking side-by-side. They had just come out of the forest, both smiling, one slightly maniacal, and for some reason he found himself perturbed by that. He couldn't understand why, and so shut down his feelings at that point in time, and decided to just follow the girl.

Now, Anko certainly noticed him there. It wasn't a very good cloaking jutsu. Okay it was, but as a previous apprentice of pale-snake, she was particularly good at sensing out cloaking jutsus, no matter where. It had been a necessity while travelling with the mentally-insane man, especially with the dangerous people they had seemed to attract. But anyway, the woman had smirked and bid Sakura a smirking goodbye.

Naturally Itachi, was for the first time a bit stumbly in controlling the feelings he was quickly gaining from observing the pinkette, and so did not have a complete hold on everyone else around him. He was only concentrated on the pinkette. So, it was not something particularly surprising or bad that when a certain hyper-active Uchiha appeared behind him and startled him.

It was the first time Uchiha Shisui had gotten the better of his Weasel-chan, and it certainly would not be the last.

"Itachi-chan!" He shout-whispered, "Who's that girl you're following?"

The dear Itachi-chan stiffened ever so slightly which was equivalent to a Naruto jumping in the air and running all the way to the other end of Konoha. Had he been too concentrated on the pink-haired girl?

Thankfully, Shisui soothed his worries. "Now, now Itachi-chan, not to worry. You aren't getting rusty or slow. I just saw you a lot earlier so your little cloaking jutsu didn't work on me."

So, the relieved Itachi-chan nodded.

"Now would you tell me why you're following her now?"

"I am not following Sakura-san."

"Oh... so you know her name! You guys must be close!"

Itachi sighed and shook his head.

"But you know her name!"

So, to clear up any misunderstandings of how he was obsessed with Sakura, Itachi went on to explain how he had sort of met the girl in a certain... location, he definitely did not want to give up his secret dango stall, and had picked up all sorts of information and knowledge of her from that encounter.

It took a while for Shisui to stop choking on his laughter, but when he did, he just kept laughing without the coughing or hacking.

"Oh! My lovely Itachi-chan has finally grown hormones! Figures, the first girl you like ends up running away from you, did you scare her or give her some horrid impression or something?"

Itachi just looked at him, a mild feeling of... insult and... some other feeling he did not like scratched at the inside of his chest. It increased even more when he realized the stall Sakura had gone into was one of the well-known places that had horrible mitarashi dango. The kind that he had, incidentally seen on her plate before she had dashed away into the night.

Why was she in that stall?

Well she probably did not know the dango there was that bad.

And a few minutes later he was proven right. She walked out with a sour expression on her face, a sneer at the angry little woman by the reception and stormed off in the very vague, but most probably direction of Kanbaji-san's dango.

He would make certain to drop by later on, or perhaps bump into her on the street. It was nearing four so... as Kanbaji-san had mentioned offhandedly, she usually went there early in the evening. So he would make it a point to be there in the early evening.

It was completely unstalker-like, perfectly normal...

But first he needed to find a way to convince Shisui that he should leave and nothing interesting, in his terms, would happen.

* * *

Sooooooo~ What did you think guys?

XXXXX

Omg I have like four assignments. Is it just me or are teachers like, crazy villains who stomp on you relentlessly? Maybe it's just me XD.

ANYWAY...

So I'm not going to make her all powerful yet even though I am dying to.. so, so badly, but that would just make that kind of sad because you can't read her journey, so like, ugh... self-control! So the chakra energy stuff will come along eventually and you guys can slowly see her getting better at stuff. I'll do a time skip in like...a chapter or two so hang on guys.

And...

I am a big, big, BIIIIIG fan of Anko and I absolutely love how crazy cool she is. And how was Shisui guys? First time writing about the guy so if I've got him a little wonky, do leave a review/ comment just to tell me about it.

Criticism is totally appreciated because I can always do better.

So review for any reason at all, it encourages me. SMILES. :)


	7. Chapter 6

Title: The Road To Badass

Summary: "They left me temporarily, so I'm going to make it permanent." The what-if scenario when Sakura decides to make a stand for herself when the Team leaves her behind yet again.

* * *

Disclaimer : I do not own Naruto and it's characters, I am merely borrowing them. However, I do own the delicious heavenly dango worth of Itachi's time and it's owner - Kanbaji-san.

Happy reading guys!

* * *

She did not know what she was doing in this end of Konoha, the marketplace of the wealthy with fine-dining restaurants on every marbled corner where even the cheapest, most low end items were miles more expensive than the priciest item in her usual street. The men and women were garbed in kimonos and hakamas of every sort, from soft linens to silk and brocade with most beautiful patterns. Obis and belts were covered in ornamental carved belts and the women had little pearls and rubies on theirs. Hair on every woman was perfectly coifed or straight, faces made-up with expensive lip-sticks and kohl.

It was very clear, that this was the place for the wealthy and rich. She sensed a woman by her side, and from her vantage point, reached only her shoulder. The woman was most beautiful. She was regal and walked with an elegance many women here were left to be desired, she wore no makeup and had clear, radiant skin. Her smile was gentle, but excited and she wore a black, casual kimono with a very small colored obi. She did not appear to be as rich as the many people around them, but she must hold a sway over them as people were clearing a path for them, as they walked together. Who was this woman? Sakura could not see her features, and even if she did, she doubted she would recognize her as she knew no one with perfect black hair, other than Hinata, but her hair was in a pixie cut.

And then the woman turned over to her, her lips forming words Sakura couldn't hear and then walked off into a katana store that clearly specialized in custom made swords. Sakura breathed in and out, why was her breath becoming so heavy? The woman was beautiful. High-cheekbones, finely featured with small lips and a tiny, straight nose. She was so perfect, and yet none of that caught her attention. Forget the fine satin stitches on the expensive yet simple kimono the woman wore, and that Sakura noticed, she was wearing. Or rather a shirt and pant that tied at the front. The woman had the most magnificent eyes. A dark, navy almost completely black iris, tinted with tiny flecks of grey and brown, and a pupil so dark, it was almost like looking into the night.

She had seen eyes like that before. The same brown and grey flecks. It certainly wasn't Sasuke, the boy had eyes threaded with greys and navies, but no brown. No hint of warmth.

Her feet carried her past Madam Mimeko and her porcelain figurines whom she had never met, her ever over-eager daughter with her padded chest and chamois scarves, as plagued with summer as Konoha was. She continued on past a fabric shop that she most certainly would never be able to afford in all three of her lifetimes, nodded to the old, grey-streaked woman who had similar features to the woman beside her earlier, and continued walking until the obvious change of texture in the road, residents and walls and gone from smooth, nice-smelling people with bamboo screens and marble structures to a pebbled walkway, with an earthy smell in the air and fresh fruit wholesalers with red cheeks and young children helping them.

Hang on. This was her usual grocery area. In front of the watermelon man was the old lady and her basil leaves, mint sprigs, rosemary and thyme. In front of the little weaponry shop that she occasionally stole from was the rather short, brunette girl who used to tower over her. This was rather odd, Sakura realized. Everything had suddenly become much lower and shorter than her.

Ashi-chan had always been taller than her for as long as she could remember. Then again, at a measly four foot and three, dogs were taller than her too. Right now, even the hydrangea-scented six-foot old man was shorter than her. Ordinarily, Sakura would be freaking out by now, but something told her that everything was just fine so she swept her long, ebony hair away from her face and dashed down the street to find Ino. The blonde would be terribly jealous at her recent growth spurt and even more so when she noticed how long her hair was now.

Sakura kept running and running, and stopped. She didn't know how to get there. Ino's flower shop was a few streets from where she used to live, down on... well it was definitely quite a ways from her own street... where did Ino live? This was very strange. For as long as the pinkette could remember, Ino's home was right beside the flower shop, and both places had been visited very often by her as a young child. She could probably arrive there with her eyes closed.

Well it wasn't a massive problem right now she supposed as she finger-combed the slightly out of place strands of hair. She ran her fingers through her soft, soft hair and paused in her random, jumbled thoughts. Her hair was rather long now wasn't it? She'd never had hair as long as this before. It was way past her back, and if she guessed correctly it was hitting just the top of her bottom. This was rather exciting. She didn't recall ever having hair as long as this, she had never played around or styled hair this long before, and Ino was rather cautious when it came to touching her blonde locks.

Eagerly, Sakura pulled her entire mass of hair over her shoulder and began walking absent-mindedly while she braided her lovely locks. It was a delight to play with that was for sure, over... under...over...under... she just continued that pattern until she had reached the end of the braid and fastened the end with a soft red hair-tie. Red... it was a rather nice color, not really her favorite anymore, but it was such a pretty red and contrasted with her lovely, shining hair.

She ran her fingers over the plaited strands, smooth... the ends were silky and even that half-and-inch of unbraided her was ridiculously soft. In fact, she'd bet her hair looked even better than Ino's right now. Sure, the blonde had a smooth waterfall of hair that shone in the sunlight, but her hair was different. Sakura's long, longer than Ino's hair was beyond any ordinary waterfall, hers was like the Kegon waterfall, long and smooth with hardly a ripple, it gleamed the way rainbows shined in the Fukuroda waterfall.. yes her hair was a natural beauty of incredible... incredible magnificence. Very much like a waterfall indeed.

It was a gorgeous black mass of silk with strands softer than cotton, tough as wire and gleamed like onyx. Well, she had hit an all new low hadn't she? Waxing poetics over her lovely hair. Compared to Ino's hair, her black shining hair that gleamed in the sun with an impressive dark blue sheen. Now that she thought about it, she'd never tried dying her hair black before.

Wait.

Her hair wasn't dyed.

Panicking slightly she looked at her braid and freaked out.

HER HAIR WASN'T BLACK!

Why had it taken her so long to realize this? She would never dye her hair black, that much was guaranteed. Sure she hated her pink-hair sometimes but it was a part of who she was and no amount of dyeing it would change that. And why was the sky still bright? The last thing she had done.. was... was... was eat dango at Kanbaji-san's shop.. and then she went to her little hidden waterfall.. and then gone home... when it had gone dark.

This was a dream wasn't it? The impossibly long hair, the sudden height difference, there was no way all of that could happen in a night... it would take at least a week... and even then her muscular structure was bound to be damaged...

There was no pain in her knees, no pain in any of her joints actually, she walked incredibly fluidly so there was no damaged muscles... Not to mention she felt as though she had been walking for hours upon hours on end and she was still a few meters away from Ashi-chan. This was definitely a dream then. But who was this person she was in this dream? Who had long black hair, a tall stature and lived in the overly wealthy section of Konoha?

Well, if dreams were mainly about people she had seen before... it would have to be Uchiha Itachi wouldn't it? She felt strangely calm at this revelation, and felt the need to turn her body around, so she did so. Now that everything was just a dream, she felt comfortable just going with it. After all, it couldn't hurt her now could it? The scenery around her shifted slightly as she felt the body she was in turn and focus onto the crowd. She didn't know what it was focusing on, until she spotted the pink hair and the red dress with a very sweaty look going on.

She was looking at herself, and if it was any indication, it had been just after she trained with Gai and was out here looking for her path home and taking the wrong forest path. Why was this body focused on her? Then, in a split second's worth of movement that left her dizzy, her vantage point had shifted and she was in her body, looking out into the crowd. And then she noticed the Uchiha. Ordinarily, she wouldn't have noticed him there, and yet she felt strangely compelled to move in his direction, to look up and see his gorgeous features.

She then noticed something she hadn't realized before. The people around him didn't see him. There was no fear or adoration from men or women alike. It was as if he wasn't even there.

Never mind that, why was Uchiha Itachi staring at her so intently? Why was she so sensitive to him staring at her? The scenery around her melted down into a dark room. Where was it? Looking around, she eyed the few candles in strategic places around the room, the mahogany and redwood used as walls and boards for the floor. The rosewood pillars carved into a dragon and phoenix. The smell of sandalwood came from the candles and an out of place scent of fresh pine and rain was right in front of her. Looking upwards, she came face to face with one handsome Itachi.

His eyes were closed, he was seated directly across her on the naturally shining wooden boards. He wore a pale grey hakama with navy and black accents. It opened and parted loosely down the side, leaving his bare chest for her viewing pleasure. His hair was still in a braid and appeared to be tugging on his head and neck uncomfortably. She didn't understand how she knew this, but it was a dream so anything goes.

The candle-light hit the man perfectly, emphasizing his aristocratic features, entirely masculine and so beautiful. The contours of his body, the folds of his clothing all served to emphasize just how attractive the male in front of her was. She didn't realize that he was merely seventeen, five years from her twelve. A man was in her presence and she felt a little bit small, was all she understood. Graceful, elegant... he was so unlike Sasuke, and yet she could see where the younger, brooding Uchiha received his mannerisms from, and yet this older, handsome man was not brooding. He wasn't scary.

He was just...

She didn't know.

How could she?

All she knew was that he was different from Sasuke. A good kind of different.

Without warning, his eyelids fluttered open and their eyes met.

Her breath fell away from her.

His eyes were almost exactly like the woman's before, and yet they were so intense.. dark... the were compelling and lured her into an abyss of something she did not understand yet. His pupils had dilated, his iris had darkened slightly.. she instinctively moved closer to him, it wasn't a dream anymore. She felt out of control, why was she moving closer to him?

"Sakura..."

She jumped a little, the way her name rolled off his tongue was so... so naughty. The low tones of his voice, if she were to imagine it as a color, it would be a dark plum or mulberry, cushioning her like velvet.

Erotic.

And once more, as it should in a dream, she was taken by surprise.

The handsome male before her smiled and extended a hand out to her.

"I am only human Haruno, there is no need to feel unsafe or uncomfortable."

As if something controlled her, she reached out to take his arm, yelping when he pulled her into an embrace.

"Sakura..." He whispered, breath hitting her ear.

"Ye-yes?"

"This braid you made is uncomfortable and tugs on my scalp, would you help me undo it?"

Sakura smiled, and the dark room lightened from a mahogany, slightly gloomy feel to a brighter beige. The atmosphere around them lifted and, feeling more at ease, she nodded and moved to go behind him. Was this man really Itachi she wondered. It was a silly question with an obvious, resounding no, and yet she felt, no she needed to ask that question.

"Are you..."

"Am I?"

Breathing in deeply and reminding herself that it was only a dream, "Are you really Uchiha Itachi?"

"That, my dear is something for you to ask yourself."

Nodding and accepting his explanation, she began to unbraid his hair. Her fingers removed the hair-tie, letting it drop and sink to the floor where the wood swallowed it up. She unraveled his hair slowly, in what felt to be a very intimate setting. She let her fingers tickle his scalp and trail down his neck while they eventually dragged lazily past the ends of his hair and down his back.

Suddenly, she was before him, looking at the very sensual picture of an Uchiha Itachi with his hair tumbling down his shoulders and onto his chest. He radiated a raw masculinity she had never felt before. The man reached out to touch her cheek, before fading away into cherry blossoms. The entire room and it's scene fluttered away from her, erasing any trace of the man whose hair she had touched, of the room, of her previous being in his body.

Haruno Sakura floated away into the clouds and away from this mental link to an emotionally stunted, Uchiha Itachi.

She fell into daisies and mutated unicorn rainbows, whatever it was, she just kept dreaming, tired from a day of pushing her limits.

* * *

Miles away from Konoha, in a sleeping bag by the fire, a teenaged Itachi opened his eyes, alert and recalling vaguely of a dream where he was walking far beneath his usual height, had pink hair and was hyper aware of unfamiliar aches in his body.

He shuddered, remembering little snippets of an adult Sakura before him in a dark mahogany room, touching his hair and her breath on his lips.

Ignoring the dream, he got up, packed his sleeping bag and took the next watch.

Never-mind he could still feel fingers being on his scalp and neck.

* * *

Hi guys!

So this is a filler chapter, I'm so, so sorry. I've been swamped with assignments and my wisdom teeth have been killing me so be kind yeah?

XXXXX

Okay, so this is a dream and, obviously it shows that Itachi and Sakura have some kind of transcended connection that they just don't realize. Did anyone notice the correlation between Adult Itachi in Sakura's dream and Adult Sakura in Itachi's dream? I was playing on how psychic brain waves connecting, I don't know much about it but hey, fiction means creation right? So then there is also their consciousness and how they view the other person.

Cute, emotionally-stunted Itachi who doesn't realize how he feels about Sakura because his curiosity overrides a lot of things. So we all know now that subconscious Itachi is rather sexy eh?

And then there is Haruno Sakura who just hasn't reached that spot yet. Like me, it took me hitting fourteen to truly appreciate delicious males and it will take a while for Sakura to get there too, but her subconscious recognizes it so yay!

No worries, this dream will only play into reality after a long, long time where we finally get a time-skip and some romantic interlude between our favorite pairings. 333

Ice-cream butt-hearts yay!

XXXXX

Okay guys, so this is all for now, sorry for the late chapter.

Rate it, review it, and here's a question to answer.

If you Sakura was a superhero, you know like superman or wonder woman, what would she look like and what kind of superpower would she have? But here's the trick, no powers she already has in the anime/manga.

Enjoy... :)


	8. Chapter 7

Title: The Road To Badass

Summary: "They left me temporarily, so I'm going to make it permanent." The what-if scenario when Sakura decides to make a stand for herself when the Team leaves her behind yet again.

* * *

Disclaimer : I do not own Naruto and it's characters, I am merely borrowing them. However, I do own the delicious heavenly dango worth of Itachi's time and it's owner - Kanbaji-san.

Happy reading guys!

* * *

_The skies are a clear blue today and the flowers of the sun are nigh turning gold._

_The moon sets and the sun rises so forth with each coming day._

i.

_Kawai-aki-no-kami, Iga. That is my clan name, but what clan is there left for me? Magari was my last place to be, my last camp with my brethren, yet the honor of a shogun has been lost upon them. Oda Nobunaga. Invade this land he did, and yet to turn the men of Iga against us was a cruel crime not of necessity. Revenge must be exacted._

_In what manner can I attain this? He has many people, and I am but one shogun skilled in only the arts of Sento Bujutsu, he will certainly rid me as easily as he did to my clan. As the last of the Kawai-aki-no-kami, I cannot let him bring my certain death._

_There is but one way, and that is to learn, grasp and know the way of my clan, that which has been shared from generation to generation, the Iga-ryu. I will use my limited understanding and memory of that which my chi-chi-ue taught me, and will search the four corners of this land for the ancient scrolls that the blood of my clan, and only my clan can unearth._

_*Bloody thumbprint*_

_I, Asakyura of Iga, vow to learn the Iga-ryu, master it the way the Tsu-no-Yoso only could, and will avenge the Kawai-aki-no-kami. _

_May my certain death, for one man can only stand against so many for so long, bring about glory for the clan who has passed on. _

* * *

"Itai..."

Followed by a mumbled groan. A crash. Another mumbled 'itai'.

She certainly would have woken up the neighbors had she had any, Uchiha Itachi observed from his perch on another apartment complex. The pinkette reminded him of, a dream he had had the night before.

He hadn't followed her to the dango stall courtesy of one hyperactive, curious Shisui who had insisted on knowing more about Itachi's feelings on the matter. So to avoid him, the stoic Uchiha took a mission that would have needed about two days to complete, give or take a couple of hours, nearly killed one of team members -figuratively- by finishing the task in nine hours to arrive back on time, to follow the candy-color haired genin again. He was currently about an hour ahead of when he thought she would wake up, but she was rather full of surprises.

Well not follow per say, it would be rude of him to go into her room uninvited, they didn't even know each other.

Yet.

For reasons unknown to him, she found it necessary to hide from him and go out of her way to run away from him.

It was pretty sad to say that this was currently the only interesting bit of Itachi's life that held his attention.

He had taken the trouble, while resting at home in between her training session with Gai and her meeting with Anko, to do a little bit of research on Haruno Sakura. He only knew she was on the same team as his little brother, and like he had contemplated earlier in the week in the dango stall, she was a high-pitched, Sasuke-focused girl of the highest order. Not to mention that almost any conversation about Sakura would have some kind of derogatory term about her and kunoichis, her ability as a shinobi and almost any adjective that meant, or was remotely close to _weak._

It wasn't that it might not be true, but she didn't appear to be lacking of any intelligence. Itachi also just might be one of those people who respect women because he is a mama's boy. But no one except Shisui suspects that.

Back to the rose-haired genin.

So he had done a little bit of research on her. It really had been just a little bit. Uchiha Itachi was not the type of person to roam around and ask people about another person. If he did, he would have learned a lot more about Sakura's personality switch since the death of her parents, that she was still a very sweet girl albeit a tiny bit bloodthirsty when provoked into a rage, she also was very kind that contradicted her very bad-temper.

But he did not.

Instead, he made plans to follow the girl as she went about her daily routine, after which he would then go to the administrative office, hospital and academy to read up on her files today.

Currently, he was learning quickly that the pinkette had no qualms about swearing creatively and pairing together words that were entirely inappropriate in any conversation, yet fit together in a foul but interesting way. Many years into the future when Mikoto hears her eldest son swear, she will wonder just how it happened because Uchiha Itachi does not swear.

"Ugh! Stupid... stupid!" She was a lot more awake, although Gai's idea of bright-eyed and bushy-tailed probably wasn't like this.

* * *

Hurt!

That was all that registered in the sleepy mind of one Sakura Haruno. Damn it was there nowhere on her body that felt no pain? No soreness? Not to mention she had forgotten to remove those weights when she flopped onto the bed last night so there were thick, red marks lining her cheeks, sore ankles and toes thanks to her much heavier limbs that fell on top of one another relentlessly throughout the night.

It was so dark out she could barely see her pink hair, and no matter how far into the night it was, she could usually see her blinding hair color.

"Mmph..." She muttered into her pillow, spitting out strands of her now shoulder-length hair that got caught up in her mouth.

What time was it?

**_About three thirty in the morning_ **Inner chimed helpfully.

Sakura winced. No chiming should be had in the morning.

What the hell was she doing awake at three bloody thirty in the morning anyway?

**_You need to meditate silly. _**

_WHY?_

**_Quiet. I'm tired too. _**

_Okay..._

**_Well you haven't read the whole leather book thing so we have to do what we can for now._**

_Which is?_

**_Why are you so blur today?_**

_It's three thirty in the bloody morning inner!_

**_Sheesh, just trying to help here..._**

_Grunt_

**_Don't you grunt me._**

_Meh._

**_OUTER!_**

_Okay okay... talk... what did you want to say?_

**_Okay, so you remember how at the library there was this one book that said something about chakra stabilizing and visualizing techniques to improve something important which I'm guessing might be helpful to us?_**

_Er... is this the one with the little ninja picture on it?_

**_Yes! So? Do you remember what's inside?_**

_Well it was basically just visualizing the chakra lines being expanded and stuff right?_

**_Well I don't know..._**

_Inner you just said chakra stabilizing and visualizing techniques so clearly you know more than I do._

**_Well I remembered them..._**

_Same thing._

**_Well I can't just spew it all out for you.. I don't know how to do that.._**

_Well there was something about levels of consciousness wasn't there? Why don't you tell me about it then?_

**_I suppose... so?_**

_Well?_

**_Well you basically just meditate until you can like 'touch' your chakra and then you imagine you pulling it to make it bigger... and that level of consciousness thing... I think it's about becoming more in tune with your chakra usage and stuff._**

_I'm starting to think you're becoming smarter Inner._

**_Don't be ridiculous outer._**

_..._

**_I just have a memory beyond amazing._**

_It's sad because you're right._

**_So meditate idiot._**

_That has nothing to do with its being sad because you're right!_

**_Well that was the reason you're up at three in the god-awful morning! You think I want to be awake? It's three! Three-bloody-thirty in the goddamned pitch-black morning!_**

_Okay... okay... I'm getting there alright? Let me peel my face off my pillow._

**_Yeah it's probably stuck there, what with all the drool on your face._**

Sakura pushed her torso off her mattress with her sore, shaky arms and go to her feet. She placed a foot forward and immediately fell onto the floor with her feet and knees cushioned on her bed.

"Itai..."

_I'm so sore I can't even differentiate the pain._

There was just more pain.

It took another failed attempt and a bump on a forehead for her to get to her feet and wobble over to her dresser barely a few feet away from her.

"Don't fall.. don't fall... don't fall.. don't fall.." She chanted.

_**I think we're going to have a new mantra.**_

_What was the mantra we had in the first place?_

**_Marry Sasuke-kun?_**

_What about after that?_

**_..._**

_You mean we didn't have a motto or something after we decided to get stronger._

**_Yep._**

_Inner! Why didn't you tell me?_

**_Well sorry. I was busy sifting through your memories of studying. _**

_That's no excuse!_

**_Well I can't help that there is so much crap in here now can I?_**

_It is not crap if you backed me up on it!_

**_I'm your freaking sub-conscious come to life! Actually I'm a sub-sub-conscious, but that's not the point._**

_Then what is the point?_

**_I'm pretty sure we've had this conversation before~_**

_Are you sure?_

**_You know, when I told you that you influence me with what you really, actually want...?_**

_..._

**_And at that time, you really, actually wanted Sasuke, so I had a good half-of-me with all those thoughts, naturally... I ended up liking him too, all because of you._**

_Oh sure, let's just blame me for all of this._

**_Yes indeed. Now stop changing the subject, get up and go MEDITATE!_**

_ALRIGHT ALRIGHT!_

* * *

Sakura sat back down onto her mattress after putting on her dress. She was going to need to buy/steal some new clothes if she wanted to keep training harder. Chakra netting kept out plenty of sweat, but once she started chakra training, how would she have enough energy and chakra to keep doing it?

And she needed a job. Sure, when she needed it, she stole items, but they were usually relatively cheap items... Like bandages. She had barely enough money to use for food based on what she was given by the office, and if she bought clothes she would have to starve for at least a month or two, even with how the food she bought were dirt cheap and of the lowest quality possible, probably a day away from rotting when she bought it and ate it immediately.

There was an idea actually. A marketplace where all the food was old and so bad they went down below dirt cheap and poor people like her could certainly buy it. Maybe the crime rate on theft would go down too. Anyway, she combed her hair away from her face, feeling a bit of a deja-vu moment, and breathed in deeply to begin meditating.

She straightened her back and made sure not to lean against the wall. Trusting that inner would yank her back to reality if necessary, she allowed her consciousness to float away from her surroundings and began concentrating on her energy and chakra network. On an ordinary day, if she had never read the tales of Don' Yoku, if she had not read so much on energies and their little subtle differences, she never would have picked up on the shadow between her chakra network and her energy. It was hard to find her energy in the first place, but once she could find it, it wasn't hard to locate the other kinds of energy flowing throughout her body.

She picked up on the grinding of previous food and how it released chemicals she could sort of feel in an energy form, the way her chakra morphed and warped in it's own unique way. Maybe this was what they meant by truly understanding your own chakra. It was one of the hidden sentences that was in every textbook she had read during the academy.

To be unlimited is to be chakra.

And chakra was essentially energy wasn't it?

Sakura inhaled deeply, spreading awareness to the contracting muscles, the expansion of her lungs, and all at once as she breathed out dived into her consciousness. Her eyelids were shut, her five senses left to her inner to watch out for. She felt around for her chakra, and tried to take it into her unconscious hand, letting it flicker on and off naturally only it was as fine-tuned in her watchful eye as it always was. Then, she searched for the tiny nodules, that collectively, created a single chakra strand. She wasn't sure how she achieved this, and it was so tiny it was mind-blowing, but she grabbed that tiny nodule, and began willing it to grow.

As it grew, she simultaneously began pulling at her chakra from her imagination, visualizing a large blue mass of energy being tugged, made a heavier, larger amount of chakra. Sweat beaded across her forehead as she continued the painstaking process, going from nodule to nodule until she completed barely a strand of her chakra.

She heaved and opened her eyes.

Well she only had about a billion more strands to go, but she could feel her hold, strength and energy over her chakra begin to increase.

* * *

From a rather high vantage point above the bridge of her nose, the single and unpopular Madam Ikina, as she liked to call herself stared down at the short and skinny little girl before her. She was quite the unpleasant sight. Red-faced, sweaty and in a dress that was fraying from the sides. It was barely nine in the morning and the girl looked like she had been running from one end of the village to another. Compared to her, if she might say so herself, statuesque and very well-put-together form, the child was an eyesore.

Saikawa Ikina, with her once jet-black hair streaked with grey and a tea-shop slowly being overtaken by numerous others, was not expecting a pink-haired girl in a red dress to appear at her door asking for work. Yes, she had indeed placed the sign there but she most certainly had not been expecting such a giant splash of color. Within walls of grey and her dark colored clothing, the girl was very out of her comfort zone. She didn't really have a choice in this though, her tea business was becoming slower and slower and she needed someone to hand out flyers.

Sighing deeply, she adjusted the glasses on the tip of her nose and opened her pursed lips.

"Good morning, I see you are here... for work."

"Yes. The sign you put out did say you were looking for someone to work for you so.. here I am."

"I see, alright come in." And she motioned the girl into her tea-shop.

They sat down in a corner booth towards the left end of the very, lacking-of-patrons area and she wasted no time in telling the girl what she was looking for.

"I need someone to hand out flyers, sweep, mop and dust the chairs and floors, and when necessary, wash dishes. My shop is open from ten in the morning until six in the evening, I'll pay you five thousand yen weekly, so about 150 yen per hour for your work if you work all nine hours here. If you can finish your work under the time frame and wish to leave early, you may but remember that I will be paying you on an hourly basis."

"That sounds great, I'll arrive back here in an hour...okay?"

"Yes, and be..." She gestured toward the girls messy appearance, "Neat..."

* * *

She would have skipped all the way back home if she could, sadly her legs were in not much better shape than they were yesterday after training with Gai and she had about twenty-minutes to clean herself and get dressed decently if she managed to get back to her house on time. Raking her heavy wrists and their fingers into her sweaty, matted hair, she smiled to herself.

It wasn't much, but it was a start to giving herself a slightly better life. Training was all done in the morning, and once she managed to stop being afraid of the Uchiha maybe she would have some more training with a new sensei in the afternoon, in the meantime, she had something else to occupy her time and, rather optimistically, she believed that Madam Ikina would be a decent boss even under her gloomy, stern exterior.

She had seen the woman many times while walking around the marketplace, in search of cheap foods and had noticed her expensive, if not a little sad-looking tea-shop sit rather haughtily on that corner between the slightly wealthier part of Konoha and the poorer side of it. She only ever wore a kimono made from some kind of dark, pale linen and a grey obi that only matched her greying hair. Her makeup was reminiscent of Sakura before she had met Ino, but in a completely opposite direction, in which Sakura had used far too much color to have fun with the powders, and this woman was not.

She took care of herself, that much Sakura could tell. Tall, lithe figure, smooth, slightly sagging skin with only a few lines around her eyes and eyes of the prettiest, darkest green. Her face was clear and her lips were not chapped. This was a woman who took pride in her appearance, and ignored any color around her. The tea-shop was even more sad-looking than Kanbaji-san's if that were possible.

But then again, Sakura just needed the money and it wasn't her place to criticize the woman's choice of color or decore. No matter how much she was dying to.

She increased her pace down the forest path and ten minutes later, arrived home. She let a sigh escape her lips and then shook her head in irritation. Her coming back, looking at her situation and becoming upset was too much of a regular occurrence. She didn't have time to be upset, or mad. Sure, it would have been nice to confide in somebody, maybe her teammates, not just about how she didn't have a chance to say goodbye to her parents or how much of a crappy life she had now... she wasn't going to ask for help but.. she never really got the chance to talk about it and it had been bugging her a lot recently.

A sniffle pushed its way out and startled Sakura. No. She didn't have the time for this. She pushed down the annoying feelings in her head and chained them away, far and deep into the crevices of her mind. Rubbing her eyes with one of her hands, she jumped out of the window and circulated chakra around her legs to get her moving quicker. She'd been practicing this for a while now, before her team had left and she could only carry it on for a very short time, but she pushed herself a little bit more each time she did it, and by the time they came back she would be their equal.

* * *

If only his mother could see him now.

Uchiha Itachi. Stalker and peeper extraordinaire.

It hadn't been just him following the pinkette the whole time. He did have other important things to do, but not all of them were quite as interesting as she was and so, he had cloned himself and sent it after her, cautioning it to be extremely careful and stealthy. Not that Uchiha Itachi needed to be anymore stealthy.

His real body was currently training with his easily excited cousin, Shisui. A flurry of elegant, precise moves that did not take up much of his energy, rather trained his reflexes and challenged them in a way only a master of the body-flicker technique could. He eyed the empty landscape around him and kept his breathing light. Shisui had hidden his chakra extremely well and it would take a chakra sensor to find him now.

Unless of course they were Uchiha Itachi and could detect minute changes or shifts in the air, then that was a completely different level. The man flipped high into the air, cleanly avoiding a double-twist from Shisui and landed on the ground. He ducked expertly, back and knees bending until his body was near parallel to the ground and lifted himself once more to avoid a stab from his cousin.

Shisui stared at his cousin in mild surprise. A surprise that had been there since the first two seconds of their training session.

What in the name of heck was up with Itachi?

He was barely paying attention to their training levels. Everyone knew Itachi was super fast, and was super good at avoiding injuries but that was the point of this exercise. He was using the body flicker technique specially for training, because Shisui could give him one hell of a run for his money with it, and it had been agreed that Itachi would only move the moment Shisui flickered in.

Not predict his moves!

Not to mention he had been using medium-to-long-range skills instead of going hard and fast and barely dodging Shisui's strikes. They were supposed to be going close combat, and here Itachi was, sensing where his location was and moving way out of close-range just before Shisui flickers there.

What on earth could have gotten the little weasel so riled up?

It had only started the day before yesterday.. So the question was, what had happened that was interesting?

Well starting way early in the morning, Itachi had been given a little talk to by Fugaku-sama about getting a girlfriend, or even a little female 'companionship' to fully understand female minds, because once he was eighteen the council members would certainly begin bugging him about marrying a girl and would try to match make him to someone. Of course, they meant female companionship both ways because if he had a female friend he was with, they would cut him a little more slack with finding a girl, but then again he had never had many friends, besides Shisui of course, and having a female as a friend, for Itachi.. was statistically impossible. And then Fugaku-sama had brought up the matter of Itachi-chan never being with a girl. Naturally, Itachi understood what he had meant with the word 'being,' but didn't get why it was so important, and so had left after a few words of,

"I do not care for women, and would not need for one to lead this clan."

But as a mommy's boy, had then gone straight to him mother, told her about it and then explained that she was excused from the majority of annoying, greedy, and unappealing people, also known as women. And she was mother, the highest honor to have and was totally and utterly beyond just a woman. Mikoto-san didn't know whether to be happy her son loved her that much, or to feel depressed because he was never, ever going to get laid. Well Shisui had mentioned the laid part. The ebony-haired, gorgeous woman had just sighed and shook her head at him.

Well onto the later parts of the morning on that day, training as usual, and then training the new teams they were supposed to look over, not to mention after that they had team training... and then lunch at the compound... and then nothing interesting had happened. Itachi had gone off for some kind of Hokage meeting which took absolutely ages and then had come back later that night.

Wait. It had been a Thursday hadn't it?

Itachi always went missing between six-thirty and eight-ten every Thursday. Without a fail, he would keep Thursdays free. Missions, family meetings, training, if he could choose when, and where he was having training or anything he could control, there would be no way it would intersect with Thursdays at that specific time. If he had a mission, he would absolutely try to talk himself out of that time frame, and possibly day, but he was usually very subtle about it.

He still picked up on it though.

Now besides his hardcore obsession with that location, kami knew where it was, Itachi did not get freaked in any way or form over anything. EVER.

Missions, clan duties stressed out covert operations, very little sleep. All of these he could handle just fine. In fact, he handled it superbly and never showed any sign of feeling stressed or being unable to handle it. It was near impossible to rattle Itachi to this extent.

The Itachi who had killed a man for survival during an attack at the tender age of five. The Itachi, who had been an ANBU operative since he was twelve. This was a man who lived, breathed and knew stress better than almost anyone could. Everything, he had to deal with was nothing new.

That was it!

It had to be something new in Itachi's life that he was unused to.

Well that narrowed things down considerably.

Shisui doubted it could be a girl.

Then again a girl was the newest thing in Weasel-chan's life. Like the pink-haired girl who had run away from him...

Was there a possible love interest in Itachi's life?

No, it probably would not be a love interest. At least not yet. What with the girl running from Itachi and his mind clearly being preoccupied on her...

And so, in Shisui's mind, a light bulb began flickering.

* * *

SORRY GUYS. My most sincere, sincere apologiiiiiiies! Okay read that bottom bit that's bold before reading the rest okay?

Just in case you guys don't know.

**_Kawai-aki-no-kami _**was a 15th century shinobi clan, also known as a shogun clan in the Iga region, if I'm not mistaken. If you know more about this let me know okay?

**_Magari _**is a place where they held camp.

**_Oda Nobunaga _**is a daimyo who invaded that area.

**_Iga-ryu _**is the art of ninjutsu, surprise surprise during that time. Cool huh?

**_Sento Bujutsu _**directly translates to fighting martial art.

_**Tsu-no-yoso** _translates directly to four elements. When I say four elements, it's something like what I wrote earlier, Chakra, energy and all that jazz all being linked with the elements because technically everything is made up of elements, so when it's written as master it in the way of tsu-no-yoso, I mean master it perfectly. Just in case you guys got confused or anything.

Hey guys! Sorry for like, the latest update ever but I drowned in case-studies, assignments and I had to drill my wisdom teeth out thanks to my bone structure, so if there are any weird things going on, or something doesn't seem right or ring properly, just tell me. Feel free to pm me with ideas you have or if the plot lines aren't going well. criticism is very much appreciated because I'm trying to become a better writer all the time.

So yes, Sakura is unnaturally gifted with chakra, always has been always will be eh? It's the one thing she has that is, and can be explained realistically later on. Sort of like a prelude to her eventual super power amazingness. So I know in previous chapters, Sakura was a little bit, a tiny bit smitten by Itachi's gorgeous looks and it's kinda been forgotten, but she hasn't seen him in a while and that will be coming soon. Blushing and all that stuff, you'll see the slightly more timid and kind of strange Sakura because soon, SOON in the next chapter or so Itachi is going to have to become her sensei one way or another right? But we all know that Sakura is secretly a badass.

So this is all prelude to badassery. And her growing up mentally in different ways. Eg. Sexualy cool Sakura. It will come in due time.

Note: Yes Sakura finds Itachi super attractive, but his idiot brother being related to him made him something to avoid. Just in case I was confusing you guys.

Rate and review. :)


	9. Chapter 8

Title: The Road To Badass

Summary: "They left me temporarily, so I'm going to make it permanent." The what-if scenario when Sakura decides to make a stand for herself when the Team leaves her behind yet again.

* * *

Disclaimer : I do not own Naruto and it's characters, I am merely borrowing them. However, I do own the delicious heavenly dango worth of Itachi's time and it's owner - Kanbaji-san.

Happy reading guys!

* * *

_The skies are a murky blue this eve and the flowers of the moon are beginning their shine._

_The moon sets and the sun rises so forth each day, but the time then feels eternal._

_ii._

_There is a chill in the air and it is with great sadness that my birthright, glory, that which defines me has been taken with force. And, to avenge my clan and it's forefathers I must disguise who I am. _

_A castaway, Hyoryu as my deceased father would say._

_It has been nearly a week since this tragedy and the pig, Oda Nobunaga has been chasing me. The fool. He may be the daimyo, and he may have every resource in this land, but he is not a survivor. He is a man who has risen with money and manipulative words. His men are not trained to find me, even with my lack of knowledge of the Iga-ryu, I know and have learned the forest unlike anyone could. It hums with energy we have been trained to find, and understand. The remaining Iga traitors with him will not be of help. Low ranking civilians learning our ways without their body's natural knowledge is an arduous task._

_There is a basis for the Iga-ryu, it is the most basic of ways to begin learning it and it is the art of seals. Any kind of seal, hand seals, energy seals, once a person has learned how to use their chakra, is an easy task compared to the way of the Tsu-no-yoso. Father, mentor, they always taught us that the Iga-ryu was three-fourths energy, or as they called it, chakura, and a fourth: shizen, natural energy. Chakura and it's seals, directing them, is hard enough to master. I will practice what I have remembered until it is perfect, and then I shall search this earth to learn the mastery of shizen. But in the meantime, I must hide._

_They will find me eventually, if I stay, for they know that I am not dead, and the coward will remember my last words of vengeance to him._

_"私は学ぶことができないん術はありませんし、あなたの明確な死を止めることができる男のない番号はありません"  
_

_"Watashi wa manabu koto ga dekinai n-jutsu wa arimasenshi, anata no meikakuna shi o tomeru koto ga dekiru otoko no nai bangō wa arimasen."_

_"__There is no jutsu I cannot learn, and there is no number of man who can halt your definite death._"

_An avenger's ambition is the most dangerous of all but, a rogue avenger whom has been betrayed and has nothing to live for except vengeance's sweet, victorious, nectar is beyond containable and will kill the gods if he that is his wish. Life only means as much to him as his revenge, and even if the man is dead, his willpower will keep him alive._

_In father's words, never turn your back on one, and never be the reason for one. It is a certain death that cannot be prepared for._

_This is advice I finally understand, and one I spiritually send to you Oda Nobunaga. _

_May your death intoxicate me with happiness, may my life be your death. Should I die, be certain that you will not escape me._

_The castaway, Asakyura._

* * *

Sakura stretched her arms behind her and breathed in the fresh air.

She was dressed in the cleanest shirt she could find, a dark blue shirt she never wore simply because it wasn't her style, and a pair of spandex shorts that has always been a little bit tight. Thankfully it's only seams were around the side so if it decided to rip, her polka dotted butt was away from view. It was a beautiful day, and even though she was in this rather.. stale looking tea-shop, she was eager to please Madam Ikina and so had cleaned the place to the best of her abilities.

The woman had just scoffed, pushed her glasses up her nose and muttered that "anyone could have done it."

Sakura didn't bother. When she chose to do something, she tried her best and it didn't hurt that she was going to be paid more money that she ever had for herself. Smiling, she took the flyers and headed out to the park to pass them out. She pondered on what she could say to boost the tea-shop's customer volume. Despite it's appearance, the tea was brewed with an experts hand and the snacks were absolutely delicious.

Not that she had snagged any when the sour-faced lady wasn't looking or anything.

But they really did taste amazing. It might even become her second favorite place to eat of all time, even if she only had one place she could afford. Namely Kanbaji-san's restaurant. That reminded her, she needed to ask the hunched old man just what Sasuke's older brother's time was. She went there to munch on her dango just about all the time, and that had been the first time she had seen him. Obviously, he was a regular seeing as how informally and familiar Kanbaji-san addressed him, but who would have thought?

The Uchiha Itachi, from what she had done the tiniest bit of reading on, and listening in at the right marketplace corners just after training, was a stoic individual who was cold, an ice cube who was the best shinobi in the village in terms of speed, skill and chakra capacity, he had a rather scary aura, but was polite and incredibly handsome, even more so on both accounts than his broody little brother. This guy liked dango.

Now she had been a Sasuke fan-girl of the highest order, but it was a Sasuke-focused thing. All she did was research his likes, his dislikes and how to steal some of his items which never worked very well seeing as she could never hide from him when he found her. She did have an upper hand over all the other girls, including Ino because, as Sasuke's teammate, the first eight months had been blissfully spent visiting Sasuke with Naruto, being the one to inform Sasuke of what Kakashi-sensei said to tell him, and becoming his mother's favorite company.

But she certainly never paid attention to his older, more charismatic and very fine-featured older brother. She didn't know that every female over thirteen with their hormones finally approaching the right sections of their body would go crazy whenever in somewhat close proximity to the Uchiha heir, yet his one difference to his brother in terms of looks was, the man was stoic to the point of being terribly emotionally-stunted, not to mention his dangerous aura kept them at arms length. Though it didn't help with the tingling sensations women of many ages would get when they saw him, and the more experienced ones always had to keep their panties from falling straight through the ground.

Of course Sakura herself wasn't aware of this yet, barely thirteen, with more things to concentrate on, and Sasuke now being the bad guy in her head didn't paint Itachi a very friendly picture. Even if he had been very nice and handsome and helped her pick up her dirt cheap groceries.

Some of which she definitely did not steal.

How long had it been already anyway? A week? Since she last made the aspiration to become stronger, tougher and a better ninja.

Frowning a little bit as she bit her lip, what kind of ninja was she trying to become?

What had she achieved in the last week? Training with Gai every morning left her sore, but she could feel herself becoming a bit stronger, and the slightest bit faster. The basic kata's he had been training her in were still hard to grasp, and she was just a touch clumsy but he had said she was improving, so that had assured her. Chakra-wise, her early morning rituals had improved slowly. Instead of just expanding one nodule a strand, she was able to go from strand to strand. Before long, she would be able to control the entire mass of hundreds of thousands of strands, with the same detail she needed now.

Ninjutsu was a pathetic facet of her training she hadn't gotten to yet. With her dismal chakra capacity, minor clone jutsus, replacement and henge jutsus were all she could manage. She needed to find someone willing to train her in the art of ninjutsu, and if there was anything in the book she was slowly combing through that would help her, it was that she needed to fully master her chakra and basic justu before she could begin perfecting anything else.

Sighing, she sat down and placed the flyers next to her. A few minutes not working wouldn't hurt and Madam Ikina wasn't watching her.

She had made the decision to become stronger, and yet she still didn't have the guts to find someone to train her in genjutsu or ninjutsu. It was further than her comfort zone, Gai had been easy enough as, despite the loud voice, he was nice. But someone to train her in ninjutsu? And genjutsu, Uchiha Itachi was the best of the best from what mothers told their children to aspire to and what nurses and teachers muttered on their own time.

Clenching her fist, she breathed in deeply. She had to do this. She didn't know who would be a good ninjutsu teacher, and that was fine enough, but she knew Itachi was the perfect genjutsu mentor to have and she was not doing herself any favors by chickening out of asking him to help her. The worst he could do was say no. She had heard much worse from Sasuke, and the disappointment would be nowhere near how her team had made her feel.

Pulling together her resolve, she decided that the next time she saw the handsome Uchiha, she would ask him for help.

Also, she could ask Kanbaji-san what time the stoic man usually came in for his dango.

A hand waving in front of her face drew her attention back outwards. She turned her head to the side to see who it was and came face to face with a cheery-faced male with the trademark set of Uchiha black hair, pale skin and onyx eyes. The twist was, this guy had a very uncharacteristic, totally un-Uchiha-like cheeky smile on his face and a twinkle in his eye.

"Hey there, why the frown?"

She eyed the man with a wary stare and raised her brow. Her eyes sweeped over his body instinctively, checking for any hostile position or tenseness indicating a not-so-nice intent, when she didn't find anything, she looked at his face and had a look into his eyes. It was a quick, momentary habit she had taken up on when she was a little girl to try avoiding some of the meaner girls, besides Ami.

Satisfied with what she saw, she relaxed and smiled at him.

"Nothing important," She said with a wave of her hand, "Have we met before?"

He grinned and shook his head.

"Nah, but it's nice to meet you, what's your name?"

"Sakura. Yours?"

"Hmm, just like the your hair huh?"

"Yeah," She quirked her lips while her fingers trailed to a number of strands on her shoulder, "I don't think my parents were very creative."

"Well does the hair color match your personality is the bigger question." He said thoughtfully, leaned in and whispered, "So does it? Did your parents have some kind of psychic ability?"

Sakura winced inwardly at the question. It seemed so insignificant, yet it was incredibly loaded on her. What was her personality like?

"Well... I was often told that I am, cheerful and optimistic..." She paused and tilted her head to the side, "My mother used to call me a little princess, but then again... I'm not very giggly or as feminine-conscious as the other girls... but the pink hair makes it quite hard to believe doesn't it?"

"Hmm... define feminine-conscious for me, and yes your hair is the number one thing that makes you think, girl."

"For starters, I'd call it being observant about fashions I guess? Up until I met Ino, I was always in t-shirts and shorts..." She muttered wistfully, "I didn't particularly bother dressing up... and later on I only started worrying about my dressing so much for a boy. It was really silly, and ever since I've kind of just stayed in this dress-code I suppose."

"Ino? The Yamanaka?"

She just waved it off with a quick "Yeah."

"So, which boy was this? An Uchiha perhaps, someone broody and dark and a village favorite?"

Sakura blushed and playfully glared at the male.

"It's not your business, but even if it is.. so what?"

He raised his arms in mock surrender. "Sorry, sorry, so what made you think it was so silly?"

"You sure are nosy aren't you?" Her arms were crossed and she cocked her head to the other side. "Well let's just say that things were put into perspective for me after the invasion."

"Wow, you tell a stranger a lot of things, especially someone you've just met."

"And you are awfully curious about a stranger's life, so that would make us even wouldn't it?"

He smiled amusedly. "Well I've got to go, I'll see you around Sakura-san," and he stood up and headed off.

Ten minutes later, Sakura realized she never got his name.

* * *

Kanbaji-san stared at the woman before him, settled comfortably in a booth and her entire stature taking up an entire cushioned seat. Spiky-haired, brash and had come in, demanded four plates of mitarashi dango before asking for his favorite pink-haired customer.

Anko was busy guzzling down her namesake with a quickness that was both impressive and frightening. One after the other, she would close her mouth over a stick, dig her teeth in with her cheeks bulging out, and then pull it out two at a time with the syrupy sauce all over her lips and the sides of her mouth.

He was old and stooped, a few things he never admitted except to his wife bless her soul, but an idiot he was not. He had heard all about the woman before him including her exploits in Sound and the way her eyes gleamed maniacally at everyone around her. Maybe she wasn't crazy, maybe she was but he wasn't about to turn away a customer, though he doubted she would have taken his no for an answer.

It had been early in the day, just before the noonday sun hit it's peak and he had been brewing some plum-leaf tea with honey, jasmine and ginger experimentally. Believe it or not, as run-down and old as his shop was, he was making a lot of money from the sheer number of customers he received, although it sure didn't seem like it, and so had bought some quality fertilizer to grow plums, ginger and jasmine. He had listened to Sakura talk about the shop she was working at and that had given him the idea to try out some old tea recipes to maybe expand his shop.

Then, before people began coming into his shop for shade and sweet desserts, she had arrived. In all her trench-coat and fishnet glory, and complete lack of tact. She banged her fist on the counter top and grinned at him before flopping in a booth far at the back of the shop.

Back to the present, he realized she had caught him staring at her unique way of eating and quirked one side of her lips up at him before swallowing the last of her dango. She smacked her lips together and sighed contentedly.

"Alright old man, I know you ignored me earlier when I asked about Sakura-chi and I'm not going to let her go, so you better tell me what you know about her." She said, pointing at him.

He coughed into a fist. "How would you know that I have anything... to know about her?'

She barked out a laugh and turned to him, eyes staring at him in an incredibly unnerving manner. "I've seen her come here probably a million times in the morning, evening and she doesn't always eat your dango, although I know why she does, it's delicious, but still, she wouldn't stop by for no reason unless she actually knew the owner, and don't think I don't notice the little pocket money you slip into her hands."

She leaned up to the man and poked his sternum, "Don't think I don't know, so you better start talking."

He huffed and sat down in the opposite booth from her. "What do you want with her. She has enough troubles as it is and she does not need anyone, especially you to bother her."

* * *

Anko leaned back into the booth and crossed her arms under her magnificent bosom. Yes, she said bosom. She was feeling rather intelligent but also rather insulted. Saying she would bother the little pink-haired girl. If anything the girl would thank her later on, seriously. But she wasn't here to be drive the man crazy, she just wanted to know a little more about the girl and she wasn't in the mood to follow her the whole day. She knew the girl wasn't particularly rich, seeing as how she always came from and left from a similar are, but Anko didn't discriminate. People were people regardless of their money, just depended on how she dealt with them. With the pinky, she wanted to see what kind of chick she was, personality, she'd seen some of it but she wanted to know about it from a person's perspective... so what better place than a heavenly little dango shop that the pinkette frequented?

"I'm not going to bother her old man," She muttered at him, a rather bitter tone in her voice, "I want to train her, because I think she's got some spunk, the kind that them village girls don't have."

He raised a brow at her, "You want to train her?".

"Hey don't look at me like that, it's a good thing to be trained by me mister alright?"

Annoyed at his expression, she continued with a little more glare in her eyes, "Listen you old, creaky man, I've already modified my language to be child-friendly for you just because I like the girl, you care for so much so drop your she's crazy attitude and start being cooperative. I want to know what kind of person the chick is, is she a whiny bitch like some of the clan girls? Is she a complete psycho like a fan-girl is? Personality, what you think of her is all important, and you really better start talking because I will start swearing in every fucking sentence if you don't."

And then she realized she had already started swearing.

He smiled at her.

"You swearing is not an issue Anko-san, I grew up in a place where swearing was nearly a first language for many people, and I certainly do not find your threat of swearing to be troublesome whatsoever to my ears. However, you do appear, under that tough, brash exterior to be genuine in your wish to, as you say train Sakura-chan, so I will tell you a little about her, enough for you to know that she does deserve a teacher, but not one like her previous one you understand?"

Something in his voice and demeanor reminded Anko of a crocodile by the lake, relaxing and sunning itself, gentle by appearance but anyone knew not to throw a rock at it. The old man before her, still stooped even while seated with his tray held to his chest, had a calmness to his voice that people rarely used with her. It was always commanding, powerful and meant to be obeyed, his was soft, neither commanding nor egotistical, he didn't speak like he had power and yet his voice held a steel quality to it that matched a grimness in his twinkling eyes. A big difference from the cheery, if apprehensive old man from before.

As soon as he had finished his sentence however, he reverted back to his old self, unnerved and not particularly wishing to talk to her, with steel nowhere to be found.

She cocked her head to the side as she responded to him.

"Chill old man, I don't think you could take me down that easy, and you won't have to. I know all about Kakashi's little expedition with the boys, I read her file and all of theirs. Now talk about her, describe her. I like her, I just want to know what I m going to start, or rather get into.."

* * *

Kanbaji-san sat back as well, contemplation in his mind as he took in the woman before him. She seemed rather fierce and quite hotheaded, but there was a genuineness to her with the way she pouted when he said she would bother Sakura-chan and was still sulking even though she covered it up with a grin. He wasn't a violent man, and now that his bones were a little bit creaky, it would not be the best idea to engage in a fight either.

Not that he could not give her a run for her money, or in this case for her dango, he still preferred to be the little, gentle old man he was perceived as, but he hadn't been able to hold off his tone of voice when warning her away from hurting the pinkette. An old man always knew more than he let on, and the child was hurting since her team left, he knew that much and more. She was living on her own in a place that death went when it was broke, she stole occasionally and yet she used to throw a fit when he tried to give her a little pocket money. She didn't have much of a choice, he had given her a bit of an ultimatum, no dango in his shop, ever or just accept the money.

It had been tough but she agreed. The past week she had been sighing, munching more than usual and didn't notice when he discounted her a lot more than she allowed him to. She was a bright light that held a very isolated, well guarded soft spot in his heart that only his dear wife had the honor of being in. He who had seen blood, had done some cruel things had come here for a new life, and she with her smiles, even in her sad quality of life had given him cheer.

Now someone wanted to know about her, to train her, the way she deserved to be treated. She may automatically trust a Konoha-nin, it was the way their nature had been trained to exist, but he was different and he was going to look out for her until she could do so herself. He eyed the woman before him, the gleam in her eyes excited but slightly respectful, a decent woman considering what she herself had gone through and she had nothing to gain with training the girl. It was for fun, because she wanted to.

Clasping his hands together, he leaned forward and spoke. "You say she has a spunk in her, is that your reason for wanting to train her?"

"No, well it's part of the reason but I just want to train her, it would be exciting and fun."

Exactly as he had thought it would be.

"I see," Then he paused, eyelids half-closing as he fixed her with a blunt stare, "I don't particularly care for how you will train her and how much fun you will have with your most likely sadistic training methods... but know this, if you put her in danger, give her wounds the child cannot come back from or even flake out on seriously training her as a mentor, you will be sorry, not because I will do anything, but because the guilt you get from it will be unbearable."

He stopped for a moment, and then continued after taking in a large breath, "She has gone through enough betrayal, she does not need another sensei to insist on teamwork, and then decide she's not worth it, the effort and leave her behind, do you understand my words?"

And then satisfied, he dropped his "serious" voice and smiled up at her.

"So what do you think?"

Easy in his presence again, Anko mock-wiped her forehead and grinned at him.

"You have some serious care in that head of yours for Sakura don't you? Don't you worry I'll be good, and if you ever want to do more than this shop, call me, I'll hook you up in T&I, I think you'd be a great interrogator."

"Perhaps I will, but Sakura does love this dango shop. Well, enough about me, let me tell you a bit about Sakura."

He coughed to clear his throat and began.

"Sakura-chan is...

* * *

It was late at night in the compound and one Uchiha was still awake. No it was not our resident stalker, he who still has not dared to talk to the female whom he is intrigued by, but rather his easily excitable but intelligent cousin, Shisui.

He was the one who had approached the frowning pinkette in the park today, asking her all sorts of nosy little questions, but it was the way she had answered them that had him thinking. No, he wasn't about to analyze her, he did that just about the entire morning, afternoon and evening of the day, rather he was now thinking about his cute, younger cousin.

In the eyes of all the female population, and possibly a good number of effeminate males, Itachi was a god. A god that made panties drop with just an aura alone, his face was worshipped and adored, his physique wanted by all. He knew all of this of course, but it was at the far end of his subconscious mind. He did not fully understand it nor did he act on it, in fact, Shisui could say with a 99 percent guarantee that Itachi probably never thought about his looks. He had the emotional thought of a shy two year old coupled with the deadly aura and natural stoicism the Uchiha clan sought to breed in it's members. It was unique, but not necessarily in a good way.

Maybe this was why Itachi was still thinking about the pinkette. Any other guy certainly wouldn't mind talking to her. She was very cute with pretty features. Large green eyes with a slant to them towards the end, a straight, high nose and small, full lips. She resembled Tsunade in her younger photos, but with a touch more cuteness. By the time she had grown older, it was almost guaranteed that any male wouldn't mind having fun with her... but with his emotionally-stunted cousin it was a whole other train of thought.

While any male enjoyed the pampering of a female, one who wanted their attention so badly they would do anything, Itachi was intrigued by a female who ran from him. Before he had glared or turned on his scary aura, she just ran. But Itachi didn't realize that he liked the girl, oh no. He just thought he found her interesting and so it was perfectly normal to follow her around and learn everything about her like a lovesick puppy on morphine. Morphine because he didn't realize the _love~._

Okay maybe he was exaggerating. It wasn't love, Itachi didn't like girls in general, and he probably didn't define the girl as anything more than "Not-A-Fan-Girl-Is-Worthy-Of-My-Time", possibly a little bit more, but it didn't mean it couldn't blossom into more now did it? It really wasn't any of Shisui's business, but if he could just get Itachi to talk about the girl, and then convince him to befriend her, his little stoic cousin might just lighten up a bit and concentrate on their spars a little bit more.

* * *

Said lovesick puppy on morphine with glorious black hair was currently just returning home, stealthily in the highest order of stealth, walking through the garden without a single footstep and sending a small rivulet of chakra to the wards of his home to ensure that no one was awakened. He leapt high and landed soundlessly on his bedroom floor.

Believe it or not, he had not been stalking anyone, and by anyone we all know it's the pinky, rather had just been thinking about the events that had transpired a few hours ago while doing some off-duty border patrol.

_Itachi had been in his favorite dango shop, arriving not a second later than his regular time and ordering two plates of dango as per usual. He had seated himself in the booth he always sat in and had just picked up his first stick when he noticed someone walking to him. A shinobi, he realized through the refinement of the individual's chakra, quite short considering how much air was shifting around the person and he or she did not have the most quiet of footsteps either._

_The person, he realized now a female as he had looked up placed her three plates of dango in front of him and sat down. It was the pink-haired female, the one who had run from him just last week. This time, she didn't appear overly afraid, rather nervous and had a determination in her eyes. Curious as to what she would do, nevermind that he was overly un-used to having a female sit with him as he ate, he placed his stick of dango back onto his plate and asked her._

_"What can I do for you?"_

* * *

And that is all guys! I tried to add just a bit more depth to this chapter and the characters, and you'll see more of it in the next few chapters. About Kanbaji-san and what he told Anko, how Sakura is going with Madam Ikina and our favorite drop-dead gorgeous Uchiha Itachi. Do you guys think I should add in a chapter that shows the point of view of Kakashi, Naruto and Sasuke? Or maybe Itachi's mom, anything really.

Review this fic for any reason at all. Questions and criticism is all appreciated and I'm so sorry for the late review. Schoolwork is a bitch as usual. :)


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